'f-' 


»       (.'A' 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 


IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

^AND  OTHER  STORIES  OF 
MISSIONARY  WORK  AMONG 
THE  TELUGUS  OF  INDIA  ^  ^ 


BY 

rev.jacob  chamberlain,  m.d.,d.d. 

THIRTY-SEVEN   YEARS   A    MISSIONARY   OF   THE    REFORMED   CHURCH 
IN   AMERICA,    AT   MADANAPALLE,    INDIA 


WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION   BY 

Rev.  FRANCIS  E.  CLARK,  D.D. 


•  'Tis  not  by  roaming  deserts  wild,  nor  gazing  at  the  sky, 
•Tis  not  by  bathing  in  the  stream,  nor  pilgrimage  to  shnne. 
But  thine  own  heart  must  thou  make  pure,  and  then,  and  then  alone,  ^ 
Shalt  thou  see  Him  no  eye  hath  kenned,  shalt  thou  behold  thy  King. 
Transtattd from  VEMANA, 

a  Ttlugufott  o/the  Iwel/ih  century. 


FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 
New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Pulluhtrs  of  Evangelical  LiUratur* 


Copyright,  1896,  by 
Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 


.PS 
C35,c 


TO   HER 

WHO    FOR   THIRTY-SEVEN   YEARS 

HAS    SHARED    MY    LABORS    AND    MY   JOYS 

AND   WHO    SHARES   THEM    STILL 


^  -4'  *f  f\  f"  '^ 
UBSTPS 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Introduction,  by  the  Rev.  F.  E.  Clark,  D.D.        .    ix 

Preface,  by  the  Author ^5 

Preliminary:  Who  are  these  Telugus?    ...     17 
I.  In  the  Tiger  Jungle  :  Does  God  Hear  Prayer  ?    25 
II.  The  Man  with  the  Wonderful  Books    .        .    46 
III.  Encounter  with  a  Ten-foot  Serpent,  and  its 

Results 5" 

IV.  The  Gospel  River  in  India:  How  it  Flows  .     63 
V.  The  Gospel  River  in  India:  The  "  Gospel  in 

Song" 7i 

VI.  The  Gospel  River  in  India:  The  Fleet-footed 

Tract ^° 

VII.  Establishing    a  New  Station:    Varieties  in 

Mission  Work ^9 

VIII.  Gospel  Preaching  Tours i°° 

IX.  Gospel  Preaching  at  Hindu  Fairs  .  .  .106 
X.  Treated  with  a  Shower  of  Stones.  .  .  "5 
XI.  A  Fruitful  Preaching  Tour    .        .        •        >  ^^9 


8  CONTENTS 

rAcs 
XII.  Our  Village  Cathedral*       •       •       •       •139 

XIII.  The  Building  and  Opening  of  a  Free  Read- 

ing-room AT  MaDANAPALLE  ,         ,         .   I49 

XIV.  A  Brahman  on  the  Bible       .        .        .        .  i6i 
XV.  The  Village  Magistrate's  Death.        .        .  167 

XVI.  Narasappa's   Mother;   or,  Christ's  Hidden 

Ones 172 

XVII.  An  Audience  of  Monkeys      .        .        .        .177 
XVIII.  The  Stick-to-it  Missionary    .        .        .        ,181 
XIX.  Unhatchable  Ink-bottles  ;  or,  Taught  by  a 

Hen 188 

XX.  Winding  up  a  Horse 193 

XXI.  Baptism  of  a  Brahman 204 

XXII.  BfMcANi  RAmanna;  or,  Unreckoned  Fruits  208 
XXIII.  The  Margosa-tree  and  the  Hindu  Temple  213 


ILLUSTRATIONS 
Photograph  of  the  Author       •       •       .      Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

A  Noted  Banyan  Tree         ......     64 

Section   of    Banyan  Tree,   Showing  its  Mode   of 

Growth 90 

A  Hindu  Village 106 

Group  of  Hindu  Idols,  out  of  Employment  .  .  120 
Native  Christian  Wedding  Group  ....  194 
The  Mission  Church,  Madanapalle  ....  204 
The  Gopurams  of  a  Hindu  Temple  .       •       •       .214 


INTRODUCTION 


I  HAVE  long  held  the  opinion,  and  often  ex- 
pressed it,  that  the  young  people  of  our  land  need 
not  patronize  the  dime  novel  or  the  "  penny 
dreadful "  to  find  stirring  adventure  and  thrilling 
narrative. 

There  is  one  source  which  furnishes  stories  of 
intense  and  dramatic  interest,  abounding  in  novel 
situations  and  spiced  with  abundant  adventure; 
and  this  source  is  at  the  same  time  the  'purest 
and  most  invigorating  fountain  at  which  oar 
youth  can  drink. 

To  change  the  figure,  this  is  a  mine  hitherto 
largely  unworked ;  it  contains  rich  nuggets  of  ore, 
which  will  well  repay  the  prospector  in  this  new 
field. 

I  know  of  no  one  better  fitted  to  delve  in  this 
mine  and  bring  this  rich  ore  to  the  surface  than 
the  author  of  this  book.  For  many  years  a  mis- 
sionary in  India,  the  fairy-land  of  romance,  a 
fascinating  writer,  a  lover  of  youth,  one  who 
knows  how  to  make  even  a  commonplace  story 
11 


12  INTRODUCTION 

interesting  and  an  interesting  story  fascinating — 
who  could  better  write  a  book  of  missionary  ad- 
venture than  Dr.  Jacob  Chamberlain? 

Already  scores  of  articles  from  his  pen  have 
appeared  in  our  leading  religious  periodicals,  by 
whose  readers  they  are  eagerly  sought ;  and  some 
of  them  have  obtained  an  immense  circulation  in 
leaflet  form.  They  have  stirred  the  imagination 
and  quickened  the  missionary  zeal  of  a  multitude 
of  people. 

The  very  titles  of  these  chapters  engage  the 
attention  of  every  reader:  "  In  the  Tiger  Jungle," 
"  Winding  up  a  Horse,"  "  Encounter  with  a  Ten- 
foot  Serpent,"  "The  Stick-to-it  Missionary," 
"  An  Audience  of  Monkeys,"  and  others  no  less 
striking. 

What  young  person  could  read  these  titles 
without  desiring  to  know  something  more  of  this 
charming  book?  But  the  best  of  this  volume 
does  not  He  in  the  taking  titles  of  its  chapters,  in 
its  fascinating  style,  or  in  the  stirring  adventure 
which  it  narrates ;  it  lies  in  the  genuine  mission- 
ary fervor,  which  cannot  but  impart  itself  to  those 
who  peruse  it,  and  in  the  realistic  and  vivid  pic- 
tures of  missionary  life,  which  make  the  countries 
described,  and  their  people,  and  the  work  done 
for  them  live  again  in  the  glowing  printed  page. 

I  believe  that  this  book  will  increase  the  host 
of  consecrated  young  men  and  women  who  will 


INTRODUCTION  13 

be  willing  to  devote  their  lives  to  the  Master's 
service  in  far-off  lands.  It  will  kindle  anew  the 
fires  of  devotion  in  the  hearts  of  a  vastly  larger 
multitude  who  must  stay  at  home  and  do  their 
missionary  work  in  America.  It  will  prompt  the 
desire  of  many  to  give  largely  and  regularly  to 
the  great  cause  of  world-wide  missions,  in  order 
that  they  may  be  at  work  on  both  sides  of  the 
globe  for  the  one  Master  twenty-four  hours  in 
every  day — personally  in  their  own  land,  and 
through  their  representative  in  some  land  across 
the  sea.  It  will  face  every  reader  with  the  demand 
that  he  or  she  must  **  go  or  send."  It  will  make 
missions  a  real  and  living  thing  to  a  multitude  to 
whom  it  is  now  a  misty  dream  of  heroic  service. 
It  is  a  book  which  may  well  be  placed  in  every 
Sunday-school  library,  which  should  be  owned 
by  every  Christian  Endeavor  Society  and  mission 
circle,  which  many  Christian  parents  and  teachers 
will  find  admirably  suited  for  a  Christmas  or 
birthday  present,  and  which,  wherever  it  goes, 
will  carry  its  own  lesson  and  its  own  welcome. 

Francis  E.  Clark. 

Boston,  July  ao,  18961. 


PREFACE 

Urgent  requests  from  many  sources,  some 
from  personal  friends,  others  from  entire  stran- 
gers, by  letter  and  in  person,  that  there  might  be 
issued  in  book  form  a  collection  of  sketches  and 
other  articles  which  have  appeared  from  my  pen 
in  a  wide  range  of  periodicals  in  America  and 
other  lands  during  the  past  years,  have  led  me, 
on  the  eve  of  my  return  to  India,  to  prepare  such 
a  collection,  only  to  find  that  I  had  gathered  far 
more  material  than  should  appear  in  one  volume. 
I  have  therefore  selected  a  small  portion  of  the 
material  I  had  prepared,  and  present  it  in  this 
volume.  My  selection  may  not  always  have  been 
wise;  in  fact,  I  have  not  brought  in  one  half  of 
the  articles  that  have  been  specially  asked  for, 
lest  the  book  be  so  bulky  as  to  be  forbidding. 
That  can,  however,  be  remedied  by  the  issue  of 
another  series,  should  it  be  called  for.  I  have 
also  in  preparation  a  more  pretentious  work  on 
India  and  the  Hindus,  which,  if  God  spare  my 
life,  I  hope  to  be  able  after  a  time  to  present  to 
those  interested  in  the  Orient. 
15 


16  PREFACE 

This  little  volume  I  now  send  forth  with  the 
fervent  prayer  that  God  would  so  use  these  simple 
sketches  as  only  to  glorify  His  own  holy  name 
and  advance  His  cause  and  kingdom  at  the  ends 
of  the  earth. 

Jacob  Chamberlain. 

25  East  Twenty-second  Street,  New  York, 
September,  1896. 


PRELIMINARY 


WHO  ARE  THESE  TELUGUS? 

The  Hindus  of  to-day  are  not  the  original 
inhabitants  of  India.  In  the  earlier  ages  the 
peninsula  of  India  was  sparsely  populated  by  a 
race  whom  we  may  consider  the  aborigines,  who 
were  smaller  of  stature  and  darker  of  color,  who 
had  no  written  language,  and  of  whom  we  know 
but  little. 

About  the  time  of  Abraham  the  tribes  of  Cen- 
tral Asia  began  to  migrate.  The  Dravidian  tribes 
pushed  through  the  mountains  into  India,  and, 
pressing  on  southward,  occupied  what  is  now  the 
Madras  Presidency,  together  with  parts  of  Bom- 
bay and  the  native  kingdoms  of  Hyderabad, 
Mysore,  and  Travancore.  These  immigrants  are 
spoken  of  in  Sanskrit  literature  as  the  pajtcha 
Dravida,  or  the  "  five  Dravidian  tribes,"  They 
were  distinct  tribes,  each  having  its  own  language, 
its  own  customs,  and  its  own  independent  organi- 
zation. They  seem,  however,  to  have  been  fed- 
17 


18  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

erated  and  working  in  harmony,  all  seeking  for 
new  homes  in  a  more  genial  clime. 

The  Tamil  tribe  was  in  the  forefront,  and  did 
not  rest  until  its  advance-guard  had  reached  Cape 
Comorin,  at  the  southern  extremity  of  India. 
They  occupied  the  country  from  that  point  north- 
ward four  hundred  miles  to  Madras,  and  in  width 
from  the  Bay  of  Bengal  to  the  Western  Ghats,  or 
mountains,  which,  like  a  backbone,  reach  from 
south  to  north  fifty  to  one  hundred  miles  distant 
from  the  shores  of  the  Sea  of  Arabia. 

To  the  west  of  these  Western  Ghats,  between 
them  and  the  sea,  the  Malayalim  people  located, 
occupying  what  is  now  the  kingdom  of  Travan- 
core.  They  are  less  in  number  than  the  Tamils 
and  are  closely  allied  to  them. 

North  of  them,  on  the  Sea  of  Arabia  and  stretch- 
ing out  over  the  modern  kingdom  of  Mysore,  the 
Kanarese  tribe  found  its  abode.  They  number  more 
than  the  Malayalims,  but  less  than  the  Tamils. 

The  Telugu  tribe  came  last.  They  occupied 
the  region  lying  on  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  from 
Madras  north  to  Ganjam,  and  westward  to  and 
including  part  of  Mysore  and  the  most  of  Hy- 
derabad, a  region  more  than  five  hundred  miles 
long  and  two  to  three  hundred  miles  broad,  while 
the  Marathis  occupied  the  region  westward  of 
them  all,  up  the  coast  of  the  Arabian  Sea.  Other 
tribes  followed  on  and  occupied  all  North  India. 


^//O  /tRE   THESE  TELUGUS  ?  19 

The  Telugus  are  the  most  numerous  of  all  the 
Dravidian  peoples,  numbering  at  the  present  time 
between  eighteen  and  twenty  millions. 

Still  later,  in  the  time  between  Moses  and 
David,  there  came  another  immigration  into 
India  from  the  higher  table-lands  of  Asia. 

The  Aryans,  our  ancestors,  were  seized  with 
the  spirit  of  migration.  One  division  went  west- 
ward into  Europe  and  became  the  progenitors  of 
the  Greeks,  the  Latins,  the  Saxons,  and  the  Eng- 
lish. The  other  division  sought  for  more  south- 
ern climes,  and,  pressing  through  the  Himalayan 
mountain-passes,  first  settled  in  North  India  and 
then  gradually  spread  themselves  through  all  the 
country,  not  as  conquerors,  but  in  comity  among 
the  other  peoples. 

The  Dravidian  tribes  had  brought  their  own 
fairly  well  cultivated  languages  with  them,  and 
a  religion,  of  which  little  is  now  known.  The 
Aryans  brought  with  them  the  Sanskrit  language, 
the  elder  and  more  ornate  sister  of  the  Greek  and 
the  Latin.  They  brought  also  the  Vedas,  their 
scriptures,  and  the  Hinduism  which  is  inculcated 
in  the  Vedas.  The  Vedas  taught  in  the  main  a 
pure  monotheism,  and  gave  essentially  true  ideas 
of  God  and  man  and  sin  and  sacrifice. 

About  the  time  of  their  arrival  in  North  India, 
however,  there  was  evolved  a  second  series  of 
religious  books,  the  Upanishads,  or  commentaries 


20  IN   THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

on  the  Vedas,  the  Shastras,  and  later  the  Puranas. 
In  these  appeared  the  first  glimmerings  of  the 
Hindu  triad,  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva,  with 
their  host  of  attendant  minor  gods;  then  first 
appeared  the  system  of  caste. 

The  Aryans  divided  themselves  into  three 
castes:  the  Brahmans,  created,  as  they  taught, 
from  the  brain  of  Brahma;  the  Kshatriyas,  or 
soldier  caste,  created  by  a  subsequent  act  of 
Brahma,  from  his  shoulders;  the  Vaisyas,  or 
merchant  and  artisan  caste,  from  his  loins.  Of 
the  Dravidians  and  other  earlier  immigrants  they 
constituted  the  great  fourth  caste,  the  Sudras, 
whom  they  declared  to  have  been  created  by 
Brahma  from  his  thighs.  They  were  to  be  the 
farmers,  mechanics,  and  laborers.  They  are  sub- 
divided into  more  than  forty  distinct  castes,  who 
will  not  eat  together  nor  intermarry.  Those  who 
remained  of  the  still  earlier  inhabitants,  the  abo- 
rigines, became  the  Pariahs  in  South  India,  with 
similar  non-caste  people  in  the  other  portions  of 
the  country. 

Caste  is  thus  a  religious  distinction,  not  a  so- 
cial. There  was  a  different  creation  of  each.  If 
their  system  be  admitted,  the  Brahman  may 
justly  say  to  the  others,  "  Stand  by  thyself ; 
come  not  near  me,  for  I  am  holier  than  thou." 
This  caste  system  is  one  of  the  greatest  barriers 
to  the  introduction  of  the  religion  of  Jesus,  which 


IV HO  ARE   THESE   TELUGUS?  21 

proclaims  to  the  proud  Brahman  that  "  God  hath 
made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men," 

The  Brahmans  mingled  among  all  the  other 
peoples  of  India,  and  from  their  superior  educa- 
tion and  mental  power  soon  gained  an  ascendancy 
and  succeeded  in  inducing  all  the  earlier  peoples 
to  accept  their  religion  and  their  caste  system. 
They  became  the  sacerdotal  class,  the  priests  and 
school-teachers  of  all  India.  They  did  not  at- 
tempt to  introduce  their  language,  the  Sanskrit, 
except  as  the  language  of  ritual,  but  themselves 
adopted  for  daily  use  and  further  cultivated  the 
languages  of  the  Tamils,  the  Telugus,  the  Kana- 
rese,  and  others  of  the  preceding  immigrants 
among  whom  they  resided. 

The  religion  which  they  introduced  taught  of 
the  Hindu  triad,  Brahma  the  Creator,  Vishnu  the 
Preserver,  and  Siva  the  Destroyer,  and  a  host  of 
other  gods,  theoretically  inferior  to  the  triad, 
but  with  practically  much  greater  influence  over 
the  daily  lives  and  the  welfare  of  the  people. 
These  minor  gods  are  far  more  feared  and  far 
more  worshiped  by  the  people  than  the  triad. 
They  hold  that  there  are  three  hundred  and  thirty 
millions  of  gods,  male  and  female,  named  and 
unnamed,  and  the  country  is  filled  with  shrines 
and  temples,  in  which  are  images  of  multitudes 
of  these  gods,  or  idols,  to  receive  the  homage, 
the  worship,  the  sacrifices,  of  the  people. 


22  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

The  Brahmans  further  taught  the  doctrine  of 
transmigration,  which  is  that  at  death  the  soul 
simply  passes  on  one  stage  in  its  existence  to  be 
born  again  in  another  body — in  a  higher  order 
if  he  had  done  more  good  than  evil,  in  a  lower  if 
the  evil  had  exceeded  the  good.  If,  after  count- 
less transmigrations,  the  account  of  evil  were 
canceled  by  the  amount  of  good  deeds  performed, 
and  sufficient  merit  were  attained,  the  soul  would 
then  be  absorbed  into  that  of  the  Deity,  and  in- 
dividual existence  would  cease.  This  is  their 
doctrine  of  Nirvana,  or  final  absorption,  which  is 
the  highest  goal  to  which  a  Hindu  can  attain. 

To  obtain  the  needed  merit  a  system  of  duties 
is  prescribed.  It  consists  of  the  daily  and  strict 
observance  of  all  caste  rules,  the  performance  of 
the  prescribed  acts  of  worship,  sacrifices,  ablutions, 
pilgrimages  to  holy  shrines,  bathing  in  the  sacred 
rivers,  penances,  self-torture,  hermit  life  apart 
from  one's  kind  in  complete  isolation  in  a  desert ; 
and  thus  it  is  hoped  that  the  transmigrations  of 
the  soul  will  be  brought  to  a  speedier  end  and 
Nirvana  be  attained.  The  mass  of  the  people, 
however,  are  content  with  the  daily  observance 
of  caste  rules  and  the  abundant  worship  of  their 
multitudinous  idols. 

This  very  brief  outline  of  the  Hinduism  of 
to-day  would  be  incomplete  without  the  further 
statement  that   vast    numbers  of    Hindus,   now 


H^HO  ARE   THESE  TELUGUS  ?  23 

educated  in  Western  learning,  no  longer  at  heart 
hold  to  the  system  of  modern  Hinduism  as  above 
outlined,  although  they  still  outwardly  conform 
to  the  rules  of  caste  and  of  ritual.  There  is  an 
unrest  among  all  the  educated  classes  and  a  look- 
ing for  something  different.  Some  are  seeking  a 
revival  of  ancient  Vedic  Hinduism,  an  essentially 
pure  monotheism,  with  no  caste,  no  idolatry,  no 
senseless  ritual.  Others  are  seeking  an  eclectic 
system,  aiming  to  obtain  the  morality  and  uplift- 
ing influence  observed  in  Christianity  without 
accepting  Christ.  Others,  in  vast  numbers,  are 
veering  away  into  blank  agnosticism.  All  these 
maintain  an  outwardly  very  hostile  attitude  to- 
ward evangelical  Christianity.  There  is  never- 
theless a  quiet,  unobserved  undercurrent  among 
very  many  toward  an  open  acceptance  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  as  the  Saviour  of  the  whole  world. 

This  condition  of  unrest,  of  the  expectancy  of 
some  change  soon  to  come,  which  is  freely  ad- 
mitted even  in  the  native  newspapers,  both  in 
English  and  in  the  vernaculars,  gives  a  golden 
opportunity  for  pressing  the  claims  of  Christianity 
upon  the  people  of  India  at  the  present  juncture. 
It  emphasizes  the  terrible  responsibility  resting 
on  the  church  of  Christ,  lest  this  God-given  op- 
portunity pass  by,  never  to  be  repeated. 

For  more  than  a  third  of  a  century  I  have  been 
engaged  in  pressing  this  work  among  the  Telugu 


24  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

people,  of  whom  I  have  given  some  account  above, 
and  the  following  pages  contain  incidents,  most 
of  them  jotted  down  at  the  time,  which  have  oc- 
curred in  connection  with  my  missionary  labors 
among  these  Telugus. 


IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE:  DOES  GOD  HEAR 
PRAYER  ? 

It  was  in  September,  1863.  I  was  taking  a 
long  exploring,  preaching,  and  Bible-distributing 
journey  up  through  the  native  kingdom  of 
Hyderabad  and  on  into  Central  India,  where  no 
missionary  had  ever  before  worked.  It  was  a 
journey  of  twelve  hundred  miles  on  horseback, 
of  four  to  five  months,  and  through  a  region  little 
known  and  difficult  to  traverse,  and  by  many  re- 
garded as  exceedingly  dangerous.  Indeed,  be- 
fore starting  I  had  received  messages  and  letters 
from  numbers  of  missionaries  and  laymen,  warn- 
ing me  of  the  danger,  and  begging  me  not  to 
throw  away  my  life  and  end  disastrously  a  mis- 
sionary career  so  near  its  beginning. 

I  had  surveyed  the  danger,  measured  the  ob- 
stacles, and  counted  the  cost,  and  considering 
none  of  them  sufficient  to  cancel  the  command, 
"  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,"  I  had  covenanted  for 
25 


26  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

the  journey  with  the  "  I  will  be  with  you  always," 
and  started  on  my  way.  I  was  accompanied  by 
four  native  assistants,  picked  men  from  the  larger 
number  who  had  volunteered  to  be  my  compan- 
ions. We  took  with  us  two  cart-loads  of  Scrip- 
tures— Gospels,  New  Testaments,  and  Bibles — 
and  tracts,  chiefly  in  the  Telugu  language,  but 
with  a  smaller  supply  in  each  of  the  five  languages 
we  would  meet,  and  which  could  be  used  by  some 
of  our  party,  for  each  one  of  us  could  preach  in 
two  or  three. 

We  had  already  been  out  two  and  a  half 
months.  My  sturdy  Saugur  pony  had  carried 
me  seven  hundred  miles,  and  we  had  thus  far  dis- 
tributed, chiefly  by  sales,  seven  thousand  Scrip- 
tures and  books. 

Of  the  dangers  promised  us  we  had  experi- 
enced some.  In  one  city,  indeed,  we  had  seen 
the  mob,  angry  because  we  preached  another 
God  than  theirs,  swing  to  the  iron  gates,  shutting 
us  within,  and  tear  up  the  paving-stones  to  stone 
us  with ;  but,  by  an  artifice  obtaining  permission 
to  tell  them  just  one  story  before  they  should 
begin  the  stoning,  I  told  the  story  of  the  cross  in 
the  graphic  language  that  the  Master  Himself 
gave  me  that  day,  and  the  mob  became  an  ab- 
sorbed audience,  down  the  cheeks  of  many  a 
member  of  which  I  saw  the  tears  trickle,  as  I 
pictured  Christ  upon  the  cross,  in  agony  for  us, 


DOES  GOD  HEAR  PRAYER?  27 

that  we  all  might  be  freed  from  sin.  The  stones 
were  thrown  into  the  gutter,  and  when  I  had  done 
they  bought  and  paid  for  many  Gospels  and  tracts 
to  tell  them  more  of  that  wonderful  God-man  of 
whom  they  then  first  heard. 

We  had  been  washed  away  by  a  flood,  my  pony 
and  I  being  whelmed  under  by  a  tropical  torrent 
that  rolled  swiftly  down  a  river  ordinarily  fordable 
as  we  were  in  the  middle  of  it  crossing ;  but  we 
had  all  succeeded  in  swimming  to  the  same  bank. 
We  had  been  kept  awake  through  the  night 
more  than  once  by  the  roaring  of  the  man-eating 
tigers  around  our  camp  in  the  jungle,  as  we 
heaped  wood  and  brush  upon  our  camp-fires  all 
night  long,  lest  in  the  morning  there  should  be 
no  one  left  to  tell  the  tale.  We  had  passed 
through  a  jungle  where  three  men  had  been  car- 
ried off  by  tigers  from  the  same  cart-track  in 
broad  daylight  just  a  few  days  before ;  but  the 
"  I  will  be  with  you  always "  had  all  the  way 
forefended  us  from  harm. 

We  had  now,  however,  come  to  the  greatest 
strait  in  our  journey.  We  had  reached  our 
farthest  northern  point,  up  among  the  mountain 
Gonds,  or  Khonds,  who  for  centuries  had  offered 
human  sacrifices ;  and  after  telling  them  of  the 
one  and  all-sufficient  sacrifice  for  sin  by  Jesus 
Christ,  we  had  turned  to  the  east  and  south  on  our 
return  journey  by  another  route.     We  were  to 


28  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

find  a  government  steamer  when  we  struck  the 
Pranhita  River,  an  afifluent  of  the  great  Godavery. 
The  government  was  then  endeavoring  to  open 
up  those  rivers  to  navigation,  and  had  succeeded 
in  placing  one  steamer  on  the  river  above  the 
second  cataract,  to  run  up  to  the  third.  The  gov- 
ernment officers  in  charge  of  the  works,  having 
heard  months  before  of  my  proposed  journey,  had 
offered  to  send  that  steamer  up  to  the  third 
cataract  on  any  date  I  would  name  if  I  would 
but  take  the  journey  and  transport  myself  and 
party  rapidly  through  that  stretch  of  fever  jungle, 
which  was  deadly  at  this  season  of  the  year.  I 
had  named  the  date  and  received  assurances  that 
we  could  depend  on  the  steamer  being  there. 
The  heavy  torrents  of  the  monsoon  had  come 
on  unexpectedly  early  and  were  unprecedentedly 
severe.  The  Godavery  became  three  miles  wide 
of  tumultuous  waters.  Village  after  village  on 
its  shores  was  swept  away.  We  watched  on  the 
banks  for  a  week.  A  messenger  then  succeeded 
in  getting  through  to  tell  us  that  the  steamer,  in 
attempting  to  stem  that  fierce  current  to  come  to 
us,  had  broken  its  machinery  and  could  not  get 
to  us.  We  must  then  march  through  that  seventy- 
five  miles  of  doomed  jungle  to  reach  the  next 
steamer,  which  was  to  meet  us  at  the  foot  of  the 
second  cataract  and  take  us  down  to  the  first, 
whence  another  would  take  us  on. 


DOES   GOD  HEAR   PRAYER?  29 

The  government  commissioner  of  the  central 
provinces  at  Sironcha  (for  the  north  bank  of  the 
Godavery  is  under  British  rule)  kindly  came  to 
our  relief,  and,  detaching  thirty-six  coolies  from 
the  government  works,  ordered  them,  with  an 
armed  guard  to  keep  them  from  deserting,  to 
convey  our  tents,  baggage,  medicine-chests,  and 
remaining  books  down  to  the  foot  of  the  second 
cataract,  and  we  started  on. 

I  need  not  stop  to  recount  the  exciting  episode 
of  our  desertion,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Goda- 
very, with  no  human  habitation  anywhere  near, 
by  the  whole  party  of  coolies,  armed  guard  and 
all,  nor  of  our  desperate  efforts,  finally  successful, 
to  cross  the  Godavery's  three  miles'  flood  in  order 
that  we  might  reach  a  large  town  of  the  Nizam's 
dominions,  the  headquarters  of  a  high  native 
official,  a  sort  of  deputy  governor,  of  whom  I 
hoped  to  obtain  help. 

Forcing  my  wiry  pony  through  the  three  miles 
of  flooded  marsh  that  lay  between  the  river  and 
the  town,  I  appeared  at  the  door  of  this  magnate 
and  politely  presented  my  appeal  to  him  for 
coolies  to  take  my  party  down  his  side  of  the 
river  to  the  second  cataract.  He  as  politely  told 
me  it  was  an  utter  impossibility;  that  at  this 
season  of  the  year,  with  the  fever  so  deadly  and 
the  man-eating  tigers  so  ravenous, — now  that  the 
herdsmen  had  taken  their  flocks  and  herds  away 


30  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

to  the  healthier  highlands  over  the  fever  season, 
so  that  they  had  no  flocks  to  prey  upon, — and  the 
floods  and  back-waters  from  the  river  damming  the 
way,  no  coolies  could  be  induced  to  go  through. 

I  told  him  that  I  must  in  some  way  get  down 
to  the  second  cataract,  that  the  steamer  that  was 
to  come  for  us  had  broken  down,  and  that  I  must 
have  the  coolies.  I  took  from  my  pocket  and 
slowly  unrolled  a  long  parchment  paper  docu- 
ment, a  hookam,  or  firman,  from  the  Nizam,  which 
the  British  minister  at  that  court  had  kindly 
pressed  upon  me  as  I  had  tarried  a  few  days  at 
the  capital  of  the  kingdom  in  passing,  saying 
that,  though  I  had  not  asked  for  it,  he  would  sleep 
better  if  he  knew  I  had  it  in  my  possession,  for  I 
knew  not  what  I  would  pass  through,  nor  how 
much  I  might  need  it.  I  had  not  thus  far 
opened  it. 

The  need  had  now  come.  In  it  the  Nizam,  at 
the  request  of  the  British  minister,  had  not  only 
authorized  my  journey,  but  ordered  any  of  his 
officials,  of  whatever  rank,  to  render  any  assis- 
tance I  should  call  for,  either  in  the  way  of  protec- 
tion, transportation,  or  supplies,  at  the  shortest 
notice  and  under  the  highest  penalties  for  non- 
performance. The  moment  the  deputy  governor 
saw  the  great  royal  seal  his  whole  appearance 
changed,  and,  shouting  in  imperious  tones  to  his 
belted  and  armed  attendants,  he  ordered  them  to 


DOES   GOD   HEAR   PRAYER?  31 

run  with  all  speed,  each  to  one  of  the  surrounding 
villages,  and  bring  in,  by  force  if  necessary,  the 
quota  of  bearers  which  each  village  was  bound  to 
furnish  for  a  royal  progress  or  for  a  journey  thus 
authorized. 

I  had  called  for  forty-four  stalwart  men,  for  I 
felt  sure  that  more  than  my  original  thirty-six 
would  be  needed  before  we  reached  the  next 
steamer.  In  an  incredibly  short  time  the  forty- 
four  bearers  appeared ;  they  went  at  once  down 
to  the  river  and  brought  up  all  our  goods,  and 
with  them  came  the  native  preachers.  They 
placed  the  goods  in  front  of  the  magnate's  house. 

I  made  a  harangue  to  them  as  they  stood  in  a 
row,  each  man  by  his  burden,  telling  them  I  was 
sorry  to  be  obliged  to  compel  them  to  go  through 
the  jungle  at  such  a  time,  or  to  go  ourselves,  but 
we  must  go ;  that,  to  show  them  that  I  meant  to 
treat  them  well,  I  should  now  give  each  one  in 
advance  as  much  hire  as  he  had  ever  received  for 
going  through  to  the  cataract,  and  that  on  reach- 
ing there  I  should  pay  each  one  twice  as  much 
more,  in  view  of  the  extra  risk  they  ran. 

Asking  the  magistrate  what  the  highest  pay 
was,  I  placed  that  sum,  in  the  Nizam's  coinage, 
in  the  hands  of  each  man,  with  the  magistrate  as 
witness;  and  when  each  of  the  forty-four  had 
grasped  it  in  his  palm  I  told  them  that  now  they 
were  sealed  to  accompany  me  through ;  that  any 


32  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

one  who  attempted  to  desert  me  would  bring  the 
consequences  on  his  own  head ;  that  I  had  been 
trifled  with  the  day  before,  and  deserted  by  those 
north-shore  coolies,  who  had  had  no  "  sealing 
money,"  as  they  call  an  advance  in  pay;  that  I 
would  not  be  trifled  with  again  ;  and  took  out  my 
long  navy  revolver  from  my  belt  and  examined 
its  loading,  leaving  them  to  draw  their  own  in- 
ferences. The  magistrate  also  harangued  them, 
and  told  them  that,  traveling  under  such  author- 
ization as  this  gentleman  had,  they  would  be  pub- 
licly whipped  and  put  in  prison  if  they  appeared 
back  at  their  homes  without  a  line  from  me  that 
they  had  taken  me  through. 

To  make  still  more  sure,  I  had  separated  them 
into  four  squads  of  eleven  men  each,  ordering 
each  squad  to  march  in  a  compact  body,  and 
placing  one  of  the  native  preachers  in  charge  of 
each  party,  to  march  with  them  and  watch  them 
and  give  me  instant  signal  if  any  one  put  down 
his  burden  except  at  my  command.  The  two 
royal  guides  of  the  region  had  been  ordered  to 
guide  us  through,  and,  promised  a  high  reward, 
had  sworn  faithfulness. 

We  struck  into  the  jungle.  We  had  to  go 
single  file.  Foot-paths  there  had  been,  but  now 
choked  and  grown  over  from  the  long  rains. 
The  second  senior  native  preacher  went  with  the 
first  eleven,  the  senior  preacher  at  the  rear  of  the 


DOES  GOD  HEAR  PRAYER?  33 

last  party.  The  pouring  rain  would  drench  us 
for  a  half-hour,  and  then  the  sun,  blazing  forth 
between  the  sundered  clouds,  would  broil  us. 
The  country  was  flooded  and  reeking ;  the  bushes 
were  loaded  and  dripping.  Get  through  we  must, 
or  the  steamer  at  the  second  cataract  might  not 
wait  for  us,  and  we  would  then  have  to  march 
through  another  lever  stretch. 

In  spite  of  all  my  precautions,  I  felt  very  sus- 
picious that  an  effort  would  be  made  to  desert  us 
before  we  came  to  the  worst  point,  and  was  on 
the  constant  watch.  Cantering  by  the  whole  line 
where  the  width  of  the  path  allowed,  I  would  stop 
at  the  front  and  watch,  and  count  every  man  and 
bundle  until  all  had  passed,  and  then  canter  on 
ahead,  scanning  each  man  as  I  went,  and  halt 
again.  So  we  went  on  hour  by  hour,  halting  only 
an  hour  for  lunch  at  midday. 

About  4  P.M.  I  fancied  I  saw  an  uneasiness 
among  the  coolies,  and  rode  back  and  forth  more 
constantly.  Three  bands  had  passed  me,  the 
fourth  was  filing  by.  There  was  a  sharp  bend  in 
the  path ;  the  last  two  coolies  had  not  appeared. 
Quick  as  thought,  striking  spur,  I  dashed  across 
the  hypotenuse  of  the  triangle,  and  jumped  my 
little  pony  over  the  bushes  into  the  edge  of  the 
path  again  just  as  the  two  coolies  had  put  down 
their  burdens  and  were  springing  into  the  jungle. 
"  What  are  you  doing?  "  said  I,  with  the  muzzle 


34  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

of  my  pistol  at  one  man's  ear.  Trembling  as 
though  I  had  dropped  from  the  clouds,  they  seized 
their  burdens  and  ran  on,  overtaking  the  others. 
Following,  and  dashing  up  the  cavalcade  to  see  if 
all  was  right  ahead,  I  stopped  and  dismounted, 
and  appeared  to  be  tightening  my  saddle-girths, 
purposely  to  allow  those  two  men  to  report  to  the 
others  what  had  taken  place. 

They  did  report,  and  word  was  passed  along 
the  line  to  look  out  how  they  attempted  to  de- 
sert, for  that  they  two  had  tried  it  when  the 
white  foreigner,  the  dhora,  was  nowhere  near,  and 
as  they  sprang  into  the  bushes  the  dhora  dropped 
down  from  the  clouds  between  them,  horseback, 
with  his  six-eyed  gun  in  his  hand,  cocked,  and  it 
was  a  wonder  their  brains  were  not  scattered. 
And  from  the  way  they  all  looked  at  me  as  I  rode 
by  again,  with  my  pistol  in  hand,  I  knew  that 
superstition  was  now  my  ally.  They  did  not 
know  that  I  would  not  shoot  a  man,  and  my 
"  six-eyed  gun  "  and  my  mysterious  appearance 
as  reported  had  more  terror  for  them  just  then 
than  the  as  yet  unseen  tigers  in  the  jungle.  And 
on  we  marched. 

But  now  a  new  and  seemingly  insurmountable 
difficulty  confronted  us.  The  dank  jungle,  the 
rain,  the  fever,  the  tigers,  had  been  taken  into 
account,  but  in  spite  of  them  we  had  determined 
to  push  through  and  reach  the  second  cataract 


DOES  GOD  HEAR  PRAYER?  35 

before  the  Sunday.  But  difficulties  breed.  We 
now  met  two  fleet-footed,  daring  huntsmen,  who 
had  been  down  to  a  point  two  miles  beyond  to 
inspect  their  traps,  and  were  on  the  full  run  back 
to  shelter  for  the  night.  Swift  and  sure  of  foot, 
with  no  impediment,  they  could  before  dark  make 
the  last  village  we  had  passed  as  we  entered  the 
jungle  in  the  morning. 

We  halted  them  to  inquire  about  the  region 
ahead.  We  knew  that  some  two  miles  in  front 
was  an  affluent  of  the  Godavery,  which  ran  down 
from  the  bluffs  at  our  right,  and  which  we  had 
expected  to  ford  and  pitch  our  camp  for  the  night 
on  an  open  knoll  a  little  distance  beyond  it, 
where,  with  bright  camp-fires  and  watchfulness, 
we  could  pass  the  night  in  comparative  safety. 
But  from  these  hunters  we  learned  that  the  back- 
water of  the  Godavery  flood,  which  was  thirty 
feet  higher  than  usual,  had  made  these  affluents 
absolutely  unfordable. 

"  Was  there  no  boat?  " 

*'  None." 

"  No  material  for  a  raft  ?  '* 

"  None  whatever." 

And  on  the  hunters  dashed  for  safety.  The 
two  royal  guides  and  I  had  called  them  apart 
alone  and  questioned  them.  The  guides  knew 
the  country  well,  but  this  unprecedentedly  high 
back-water  was  entirely  unexpected,  and  they 


36  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

seemed  dazed  by  the  news.  The  party  kept 
plodding  on.  We  were  marching  about  a  mile 
from  the  southern  bank  of  the  Godavery  and 
parallel  with  it ;  two  miles  farther  south  were  the 
high  bluffs,  but  with  dense,  impenetrable,  thorny 
rattan  jungle  between  us  and  them.  The  country 
between  river  and  bluff  was  flat  and  flooded. 

We  knew  of  only  this  knoll  beyond  this  affluent 
where  we  could  encamp.  Ten  miles  beyond  it 
again  was  another  affluent,  but  that  would  be 
flooded  as  much  as  this.  Still,  could  we  not  in 
some  way  get  across  this  one  and  secure  safety 
for  one  night? 

"  Guides,  if  we  press  on  to  this  little  river,  can 
we  not  make  a  raft  of  some  kind  and  get  over 
before  dark  ?  " 

"Alas!  there  are  no  dry  trees,"  they  said; 
"  and  these  green  jungle-trees  will  sink  of  them- 
selves in  the  water,  even  if  there  were  time  to  fell 
them." 

"  Is  there  no  knoll  on  this  side  that  we  can 
pitch  on?  " 

"No;  from  river  to  bluff  it  is  all  like  this." 
We  were  standing  in  wet  and  mud  as  we  talked. 

"  Keep  marching  on ;  I  will  consider  what 
to  do." 

I  drew  back  and  rode  behind  the  marching 
column.  The  native  preachers  had  partly  over- 
heard the  statement  about  the  affluent  being  un- 


DOES   GOD  HEAR  PRAYER?  37 

crossable.  From  my  countenance  as  I  fell  back 
they  gathered  that  we  were  in  straits ;  they  knew 
that  in  an  hour  it  would  be  sunset;  dense  clouds 
even  now  made  it  seem  growing  dark.  Already 
we  could  hear  the  occasional  fierce,  hungry  roar  of 
the  tigers  in  the  rattan  jungle  at  our  right.  I  said 
not  a  word  to  my  assistants,  but  I  spoke  to  God. 
As  my  horse  tramped  on  in  the  marshy  path  my 
heart  went  up  and  claimed  the  promised  presence, 

"  Master,  was  it  not  for  Thy  sake  that  we  came 
here  ?  Did  we  not  covenant  with  Thee  for  the  jour- 
ney through  ?  Have  we  not  faithfully  preached 
Thy  name  the  whole  long  way  ?  Have  we  shirked 
any  danger,  have  we  quailed  before  any  foe? 
Didst  Thou  not  promise,  '  I  will  be  with  thee '  ? 
Now  we  need  Thee ;  we  are  in  blackest  danger 
for  this  night.  Only  Thou  canst  save  us  from 
this  jungle,  these  tigers,  this  flood.  O  Master! 
Master!  show  me  what  to  do!" 

An  answer  came,  not  audible,  but  distinct  as 
though  spoken  in  my  ear  by  human  voice :  "  Turn 
to  the  left,  to  the  Godavery,  and  you  will  find 
rescue." 

Riding  rapidly  forward,  I  overtook  the  guides. 
"  How  far  is  It  to  the  Godavery?  " 

"  A  good  mile." 

*'  Is  there  no  village  on  its  banks?  " 

"  No,  none  within  many  miles,  and  the  banks 
are  all  overflowed." 


38  m  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

**  Is  there  no  mound,  no  rising  ground  on  which 
we  could  camp,  out  of  this  water?  " 

"  It  is  all  low  and  flat  like  this." 

I  drew  apart  and  prayed  again  as  we  still 
plodded  on.  Again  came  the  answer,  "  Turn  to 
the  left,  to  the  Godavery,  and  you  will  find 
rescue."  Again  I  called  to  the  guides  and  ques- 
tioned them :  "  Are  you  sure  there  is  no  rising 
ground  by  the  river  where  we  can  pitch,  with  the 
river  on  one  side  for  protection  and  camp-fires 
around  us  on  the  other,  through  the  night?" 

"  None  whatever." 

"  Think  well ;  is  there  no  dry  timber  of  which 
we  could  make  a  raft?" 

"  If  there  were  any  it  would  all  be  washed  away 
by  these  floods," 

"  Is  there  no  boat  of  any  sort  on  the  river?  I 
have  authority  to  seize  anything  I  need." 

"None  nearer  than  the  cataract." 

"  How  long  would  it  take  us  to  reach  the 
Godavery  by  the  nearest  path?" 

"  Half  an  hour;  but  it  would  be  so  much  time 
lost,  for  we  would  have  to  come  back  here  again, 
and  cut  our  way  through  this  jungle  to  the  bluff, 
and  climb  that ;  there  is  no  other  way  of  getting 
around  these  two  flooded  streams  that  we  must 
pass  to  reach  the  cataract." 

"  How  long  would  it  take  us  to  cut  our  way 
through  to  the  bluff?" 


DOES   GOD  HEAR  PRAYER}  89 

"  At  least  six  hours ;  it  will  be  dark  in  an  hour." 

"  What  shall  we  do  for  to-night?  " 

"  God  knows."  And  they  looked  the  despair 
they  felt. 

I  drew  aside  again  and  prayed  as  I  rode  on. 
"  Turn  to  the  left,  to  the  Godavery,  and  you  will 
find  rescue,"  came  the  response  the  third  time. 
It  was  not  audible ;  none  of  those  near  heard  it. 
I  cannot  explain  it,  but  to  me  it  was  as  distinct  as 
though  spoken  by  a  voice  in  my  ear ;  it  thrilled 
me.  "  God's  answer  to  my  prayer,"  said  I,  "  I 
cannot  doubt.     I  must  act,  and  that  instantly." 

Hastening  forward  to  the  guides  at  the  head  of 
the  column,  "  Halt ! "  said  I,  in  a  voice  to  be  heard 
by  all.  "  Turn  sharp  to  the  left.  Guides,  show 
us  the  shortest  way  to  the  Godavery.    Quick!" 

They  remonstrated  stoutly  that  it  was  only 
labor  lost,  that  we  should  be  in  a  worse  plight 
there  than  here,  for  the  river  might  rise  higher 
and  wash  us  away  in  the  darkness  of  the  night. 

"  Obey ! "  said  I.  "  March  sharp,  or  night  will 
come.  I  am  master  here  and  intend  to  be  obeyed. 
Show  the  way  to  the  river." 

They  glanced  at  the  fourteen-inch  revolver  that 
I  held  in  my  hand  ready  for  any  beast  that  should 
spring  upon  us.  They  suspected  that  it  might 
be  used  on  something  besides  a  beast,  and,  one 
saying  to  the  other,  "  Come  on,  we've  got  to  go," 
started  on. 


40  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

All  the  party  had  surrounded  me.  My  native 
preachers  looked  up  inquiringly  at  my  awed  face. 
"  There  is  rescue  at  the  river,"  was  all  I  said. 
How  could  I  say  more?  Providentially  we  had 
just  come  to  where  an  old  path  led  at  right  angles 
to  our  former  course  and  directly  toward  the  river, 
anr  down  that  path  we  went.  The  step  of  all  was 
qu  cker  than  before.  "  The  dhora  has  heard  of 
some  help  at  the  river,"  I  overheard  the  coolies 
say  to  one  another.  I  had  heard  of  help,  but 
what  it  was  I  knew  not.  My  anxiety  seemed  to 
have  gone ;  there  was  an  intense  state  of  expec- 
tancy in  its  place.  Half  a  mile  from  the  river  I 
spurred  forward  past  the  guides ;  I  knew  the 
coolies  would  not  desert  me  now.  There  was  no 
place  of  safety  they  could  reach  for  the  night; 
they  would  cling  around  me  for  protection. 

I  cantered  out  from  among  the  bushes  to  the 
bank,  keenly  observant.  There,  right  under  my 
feet,  was  a  large  flatboat  tied  to  a  tree  at  the 
shore,  with  two  men  upon  it  trying  to  keep  it 
afloat  in  the  rising  and  falling  current. 

"  How  did  this  boat  get  here  ?  "  said  I. 

"  Oh,  sir,  please  don't  be  angry  with  us,"  said 
the  boatmen,  taking  me  to  be  an  officer  of  the 
British  India  government,  to  whom  the  boat  be- 
longed, and  thinking  I  was  taking  them  to  task 
for  not  keeping  the  boat  at  its  proper  station. 
"  We  tried  our  best  to  keep  the  boat  from  coming 


DOES  GOD  HEAR  PRAYER?  41 

here,  but,  sir,  it  seemed  as  though  it  was  possessed. 
This  morning  we  were  on  our  station  on  the  upper 
river,  caring  for  the  boat  as  usual,  when  a  huge 
rolling  wave  came  rushing  down  the  river,  and 
snapped  the  cables,  and  swept  the  boat  into  the 
current.  We  did  our  utmost  to  get  it  back  to 
that  bank  of  the  river,  but  it  would  go  farther  and 
farther  out  into  the  current.  The  more  we  pulled 
for  the  British  bank,  the  more  it  would  work  out 
toward  the  Nizam's.  We  have  fought  all  day  to 
keep  it  from  coming  here,  but  it  seemed  as  though 
a  supernatural  power  was  shoving  the  boat  over, 
and  an  hour  ago  we  gave  up,  and  let  it  float  in 
here,  and  tied  it  up  for  safety  to  this  tree.  Don't 
be  angry,  sir ;  as  soon  as  the  river  goes  down  or 
gets  smooth  we  will  get  the  boat  back  where  it 
belongs.  Don't  have  us  punished  for  letting  it 
come  here;  we  could  not  help  it." 

"All  right,  my  men,"  said  I.  "I  take  com- 
mand of  this  boat ;  I  have  authority  to  use  any 
government  property  I  require  on  this  journey. 
I  shall  use  the  boat,  and  reward  you  well,  and  give 
you  a  letter  to  your  superior  that  will  clear  you 
of  all  blame." 

The  boat,  a  large  flatboat  with  strong  railings 
along  both  sides  and  square  ends  to  run  upon  the 
shore,  had  been  built  by  the  British  military 
authorities  in  the  troublous  times  following  the 
mutiny  in  those  regions,  and  placed  on  an  affluent 


42  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

of  the  Godavery,  higher  up  on  the  north  bank,  to 
ferry  artillery  and  elephants  across  in  their  puni- 
tive expeditions,  and  it  was  still  kept  there. 
These  men  were  paid  monthly  wages  to  keep  it 
always  ready  at  its  station,  in  case  of  sudden  need. 

Who  had  ordered  that  tidal  wave  in  the  morn- 
ing of  that  day,  that  had  torn  the  boat  from  its 
moorings  and  driven  it  so  many  miles  down  the 
river,  that  had  thwarted  every  endeavor  of  the 
frightened  boatmen  to  force  it  to  the  north  shore, 
and  had  brought  it  to  the  little  cove-like  recess 
just  where  we  would  strike  the  river?  Who  but 
He  on  whose  orders  we  had  come ;  He  who  had 
said,  "  I  will  be  with  you  ;"  He  who  knew  before- 
hand the  dire  straits  in  which  we  would  be  in  that 
very  place,  on  that  very  day,  that  very  hour;  He 
who  had  told  us  so  distinctly,  "  Turn  to  the  left, 
to  the  Godavery,  and  you  will  find  rescue  "  ?  I 
bowed  my  head,  and  in  amazed  reverence  I 
thanked  my  God  for  this  signal  answer  to  our 
pleading  prayer. 

The  guides  now  came  in  sight  through  the 
bushes,  with  all  the  party  following,  and  looked 
dazed  as  they  saw  me  quietly  arranging  to  put 
our  whole  party  on  the  boat  for  the  night ;  and  I 
heard  some  say  to  others,  "  How  did  the  dhora 
know  of  this  boat  being  here,  and  come  right  out 
on  to  it?  None  of  us  knew  of  it  or  could  have 
found  it." 


DOES  GOD  HEAR  PRAYER?  43 

To  my  native  preachers  I  simply  said,  '*  God 
heard  our  prayers,  and  this  is  the  answer;"  for  I 
knew  that  they  had  been  praying  on  foot  while  I 
was  praying  on  horseback.  "  Yes,"  said  they, 
reverently ;  "  He  has  heard  our  prayer  and  de- 
livered us.     We  will  never  doubt  Him  again." 

We  pitched  our  raoti,  or  long,  low  soldiers' 
tent,  upon  the  boat.  It  exactly  covered  it,  so 
that  we  tied  the  eaves  of  the  tent  to  the  railings 
of  the  boat  and  made  a  tight  house  and  a  secure 
abode  for  the  night,  and  within  it  the  whole  party 
were  able  to  gather  with  all  the  baggage.  Before 
dark  all  hands  had  gathered  a  sufficiency  of  wood 
and  brush  to  keep  a  bright  camp-fire  burning 
through  the  night  on  the  shore  at  the  end  of  the 
boat.  It  had  not  rained  for  the  last  hour  and  a 
half  before  we  reached  the  boat,  nor  did  it  begin 
again  until  we  were  all  safely  housed  on  the  boat 
and  the  camp-fire  well  burning,  with  such  large 
logs  well  on  fire  that  it  burned  on  with  replenish- 
ing, in  spite  of  the  rain,  through  the  night;  and 
it  was  well  that  it  did,  for  the  tigers  had  scented 
us  and  were  eager  for  prey. 

The  tent  was  large  enough  for  us  all  if  we  sat 
up,  but  not  to  lie  down  in  ;  and  I  sat  watching  at 
the  shore  end  of  the  boat,  pistol  in  hand,  through 
the  night,  lest,  in  spite  of  the  fire,  a  tiger  should 
try  to  spring  on.  We  heard  their  roaring  and 
snarling  in  the  bushes  near  at  hand,  and  once  I 


44  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

fancied  I  saw  the  glaring  eyes  of  a  royal  tiger 
peering  at  us  between  the  two  nearest  bushes. 
But  "  He  shall  give  His  angels  charge  over  thee, 
to  keep  thee  in  all  thy  ways,"  was  the  thought 
that  kept  running  through  my  mind  after  we  had, 
as  we  settled  down  for  the  night,  read  the  Ninety- 
first  Psalm  in  the  beautiful  Telugu  language,  and 
offered  up  prayers  of  thanksgiving  and  praise  to 
the  Most  High,  under  the  shadow  of  whose  wings 
we  were  abiding. 

At  the  dawn  of  day,  taking  down  our  tent,  we 
shoved  into  the  stream  and  floated  down  twelve 
miles,  past  both  affluent  streams,  that  were  too 
high  for  us  to  ford,  and  until  the  roaring  of  the 
cataract  warned  us  that  we  were  just  coming  into 
the  rapids ;  and  there  we  moored  our  boat  and  left 
it,  that  the  coolies,  after  they  should  have  taken 
us  to  the  foot  of  the  barrier,  might  come  back  and 
in  it  go  up  again  past  those  rivers  and  so  reach 
their  home. 

Of  our  twenty  miles'  farther  march  around  the 
cataract  and  rapids,  in  the  alternating  blazing  sun 
and  drenching  rain,  when  one  after  another  of  my 
native  assistants  fell  under  that  terrible  jungle 
fever,  and  each,  in  a  state  of  unconsciousness,  was 
tied  in  a  blanket  to  a  bamboo,  hammock-like,  and 
thus  borne  onward  by  the  extra  coolies  that  I  had 
provided  for  just  such  an  emergency  ;  while  twice 
I  almost  fell  from  my  horse  from  the  power  of  the 


DOES  GOD  HEAR  PRAYER}  45 

blistering  sun  between  the  rains,  but  in  answer  to 
prayer  received  strength  to  mount  again  and  pro- 
ceed, myself  leading  the  party;  of  our  reaching 
the  river  again,  and  the  coolies'  joy  at  receiving 
their  promised  double  pay,  and  bounding  off  for 
the  boat  and  home ;  of  the  smoke  of  the  coming 
steamer  at  last  appearing,  after  we  had  been  wait- 
ing in  that  fever  bed  for  a  week ;  of  it  and  another 
carrying  us  down  two  hundred  miles  of  river  into 
open  land  and  inhabited  towns  again;  of  our 
farther  journey  southward,  and  all  reaching  home 
two  months  later,  restored,  guarded,  guided,  and 
brought  there  in  safety  by  the  "  I  am  with  you 
always,"  I  must  not  now  write. 

I  have  tried  to  give  a  vivid  picture  of  the  events 
of  that  pivotal  day,  but  nothing  can  equal  the 
vivid  consciousness  we  had  that  day  of  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Master;  nothing  can  surpass  the 
vividness  of  the  certitude  that  God  did  intervene 
and  save  us. 

Some  who  have  not  tested  it  may  sneer  and 
doubt;  but  we  five  know  that  God  hears  prayer. 


II 

THE   MAN   WITH   THE   WONDERFUL  BOOKS 

"  Are  you  the  man  with  the  wonderful  books, 
and  have  you  any  more  of  them  ?  " 

The  question  was  put  to  me  by  half  a  dozen 
men,  on  an  open  plain  near  a  village  in  the  north- 
ern part  of  the  native  kingdom  of  Hyderabad,  in 
India.  I  had  ridden  on  in  advance  of  my  party 
to  seek  for  a  good  halting-place.  These  men  had 
evidently  seen  me  as  I  came  horseback  across  the 
plain,  fending  off  the  scorching  sun  with  a  double 
umbrella,  and  had  come  out  from  the  village  to 
meet  me. 

"  Brothers,"  I  had  said,  as  we  passed  the  polite 
salutations  of  the  Telugu  country,  "  brothers,  can 
you  point  me  to  some  shade-trees  near  your  vil- 
lage, under  which  I  can  pitch  my  tent?  The  day 
is  hot,  and  I  am  weary  with  a  long  march." 

Without  answering  my  question,  scarcely  seem- 
ing to  notice  that  I  had  asked  one,  they  looked 
up  at  me  as  I  sat  on  my  horse,  and  eagerly  asked, 
46 


THE  MAN  IVITH  THE  IVONDERFUL  BOOKS    47 

"  Sir,  are  you  the  man  with  the  wonderful  books, 
and  have  you  any  more  of  them?" 

"  What  books  do  you  mean?  "  said  I. 

"  Why,  one  of  our  townsmen  was  down  at 
Santatope  last  week,  Wednesday,  at  the  fair ;  and 
there  was  a  foreign  gentleman  there  with  books 
telling  about  a  new  religion,  and  talking  to  the 
people.  Our  townsman  did  not  see  the  foreigner 
and  dfd  not  hear  what  he  said,  but  he  found  some 
of  his  assistants  selling  the  books  in  the  market, 
and  bought  three  of  them  and  brought  them 
home ;  and  there  has  been  nothing  done  in  this 
village  since  but  read  those  books  and  talk  about 
them.  Are  you  the  man  that  had  them,  and  have 
you  any  more?  " 

I  had  been  at  Santatope  the  preceding  week  at 
the  fair,  for  I  was  out  on  the  long  exploring  and 
evangelistic  tour  of  more  than  twelve  hundred 
miles  in  the  Telugu  country  spoken  of  in  the  last 
chapter,  and  was  now  in  regions  where,  as  far  as 
1  could  learn,  no  missionary  had  up  to  that  time 
(1863)  ever  been,  and  where  the  name  of  Jesus 
had  never  been  spoken  or  heard.  In  many  of  the 
villages  mine  was  the  first  white  face  they  had 
ever  seen.  It  was  about  a  month  before  the  in- 
cident "  in  the  tiger  jungle." 

On  the  preceding  Wednesday  we  had  made  a 
long  march,  preaching  in  every  town  and  village 
and  hamlet  we  came  to,  from  sunrise  to  eleven 


48  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

o'clock,  later  than  we  usually  journeyed  in  that 
heat,  as  we  had  heard  of  this  periodical  market, 
at  which  buyers  and  sellers  from  a  hundred  towns 
would  be  present,  and  we  wished  to  deliver  our 
message  in  the  hearing  of  people  from  as  many 
different  villages  as  possible,  and  sell  them  our 
Scriptures  and  tracts  to  carry  back  in  their  bun- 
dles and  baskets,  to  read  each  to  the  people  in 
his  own  village,  that  the  "  seeds  of  the  kingdom  " 
might  be  scattered  far  and  wide. 

Going,  as  soon  as  we  had  rested  a  little  and  had 
had  our  midday  meal,  into  the  fair,  which  there  was 
held  in  the  streets  of  the  town  and  an  adjoining 
grove,  myself  and  two  of  my  four  native  assistants 
had  alternately  preached  to  different  audiences  all 
the  afternoon.  As  we  entered  a  street  we  would 
mount  an  old  cart  or  a  pile  of  building  materials, 
— anything  that  would  raise  us  so  that  we  could 
be  seen  and  heard, — and  sing  one  of  the  beautiful 
Telugu  tunes  to  Christian  words,  and  gather  an 
audience,  and  then  read  to  them  from  one  of  the 
Gospels,  and  preach  to  them  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
of  the  full  salvation  He  had  wrought  out  for  all 
the  world.  Then,  selling  as  many  Scriptures, 
Gospels,  and  tracts  as  we  could  to  them  for  a 
small  price,  we  would  go  around  into  another 
street  or  to  a  lane  in  the  grove,  gather  another 
company,  preach  again,  and  sell  more  books,  until 
night  had  fallen  upon  us.     Meantime  the  two 


THE  MAN  IVITH  THE  IVONDERFUL  BOOKS    49 

Other  native  assistants  were  moving  through  the 
crowds  of  the  market,  selling  books  and  tracts  to 
all  who  would  buy.  We  had  disposed  of  many- 
scores  of  books  and  tracts,  and  at  last,  when  the 
fair  was  over,  had  returned  to  our  camp  too  weary 
to  sleep,  but  glad  to  have  sent  the  "  message  " 
into  a  hundred  different  and  scattered  towns. 

During  the  intervening  week  we  had  been 
slowly  traveling  on,  stopping  to  preach  in  all  the 
villages  we  passed,  and  as  I  rode  along  on  my 
pony  from  village  to  village,  often  very  weary,  I 
had  again  and  again  thought  of  the  scenes  of  that 
market-day,  and  wondered  if  the  books  carried 
into  the  far-off  villages,  without  the  voice  of  the 
living  preacher  to  explain  and  enforce  them,  had 
been  read,  and  if  read  understood,  and  if  under- 
stood believed ;  and  I  confess  that  my  faith  had 
not  been  as  strong  as  I  had  wished.  Now  there 
was  a  chance  to  test  the  matter. 

Without  replying  to  their  question  as  to 
whether  I  was  the  man  and  whether  I  had  any 
more  books,  I  asked,  "  What  were  those  books 
and  what  did  they  tell  about?" 

"  One  of  them  was  Ltika  Suvdrta  [the  "  Gospel 
of  Luke"],  and  another  was  Nistdrarattidkara 
[the  "  Jewel  Mine  of  Salvation  "],  and  the  other 
was  Gndnabodha  ["  Spiritual  Teaching  "],"  they 
said.  The  last,  "  Spiritual  Teaching,"  is  a  tract 
of  the  size  of  a  Gospel,  in  which  the  insufficiency 


50  77/  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

of  Hinduism  to  save  a  soul,  and  the  all-sufficiency 
of  Christianity,  are  clearly  set  forth.  The  "  Jewel 
Mine  of  Salvation,"  or  the  "  Gospel  in  Song," 
gives  the  whole  plan  of  salvation  in  Telugu  poetry, 
set  to  their  own  choicest  native  tunes.  Both  these 
were  prepared  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  H.  M.  Scudder, 
and  published  in  the  Telugu  language  by  the 
American  Tract  Society. 

"But  what  did  those  books  tell  about?"  I 
asked. 

"  Those  books,"  said  they,  "  those  wonderful 
books,  say  that  there  is  but  one  God.  We  thought 
there  were  three  hundred  and  thirty  millions  of 
gods,  but  those  books  say  there  is  but  one,  and 
that  He  is  a  God  of  love,  and  that  when  He  saw 
that  we  were  sunken  in  sin, — ah,  don't  we  know 
that  we  are! — and  that  we  could  not  save  our- 
selves nor  get  rid  of  our  own  sins, — have  we  not 
tried  it  and  don't  we  know  we  cannot  ? — that  then 
He  determined  to  undertake  the  task  for  us,  and 
that — those  books  say  it — He  actually  sent  His 
own  Son  into  the  world  as  a  divine  Redeemer, 
and  that  He,  Yesu  Krtsttc  [Jesus  Christ],  really 
came  here  and  was  born  of  a  woman,  like  one  of 
us,  and  that  when  He  had  taught  the  way  of 
holiness  by  His  words  and  by  His  example,  and 
had  done  many  marvelous  deeds  to  prove  that 
He  really  was  divine.  He  actually  gave  up  His 
own  life  and  let  Himself  be  killed  as  a  sacrifice 


THE  MAN  WITH  THE  IVONDERFUL  BOOKS    51 

for  our  sins;  and  that  He  was  buried,  and  after 
three  days  He  came  to  life, — those  books  say  so, — 
and  when  hundreds  of  people  had  seen  Him  alive 
He  actually  went  up  again  into  heaven,  and  that 
He  is  there  now  alive ;  and  that  if  we  pray  to  Him 
He  will  hear  us ;  and  that  all  that  we  have  to  do 
is  to  repent  of  our  sins,  and  leave  them  off,  and 
pray  to  Him  and  say,  *  O  Ye'su  Kristu,  do  Thou 
free  me  from  my  sin,  and  make  me  Thy  child,  and 
when  I  die  take  me  to  be  with  Thee ;  '  and  that 
He  will  do  all  the  rest — those  books  say  so ;  and 
that  when  we  die  we  shall  go  to  heaven  and  be 
with  Him  forever.  Sir,  are  you  the  man  that  had 
those  books,  and  are  they  true,  and  have  you  any 
more  of  them?  " 

Who  can  conceive  my  joy  as  I  sat  there  on  my 
pony  and  heard  those  men  tell  what  they  had 
themselves  already  learned  from  "  those  wonder- 
ful books  "  ?  I  forgot  the  toils  and  dangers  of  the 
journey;  I  forgot  then  about  the  mob  that  had 
surrounded  us  in  a  walled  town  only  a  fortnight 
before,  and  torn  up  the  paving-stones  to  stone  us 
with,  because  we  had  dared  to  come  among  them 
preaching  another  religion  than  theirs.  For  my 
thoughts  reverted  to  the  fair  at  Santatope,  and 
the  men  from  a  hundred  villages  that  had  taken 
these  books  home  with  them,  and  I  thanked  my 
God  that  I  was  a  missionary,  that  He  had  led  me 
to  come  forth  on  this  long  and  difficult  journey, 


52  m  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

that  He  had  led  His  people  to  print  these  books, 
and  sent  His  Spirit  with  them  when  circulated, 
and  that  He  had  rebuked  my  lack  of  faith  and 
showed  me  what  the  books  and  His  enlightening 
Spirit  could  do. 

I  turned  to  my  impatient  questioners  and  said, 
"  Yes,  brothers ;  I  am  the  man  that  had  those 
books,  and  I  have  a  whole  cart-load  of  books  like 
them.  Don't  you  see  the  cart  coming  yonder? 
Please  show  me  a  shady  place  where  we  may  pitch 
our  tents,  and  you  shall  have  as  many  books  as 
you  want ;  for  we  shall  stay  here  until  to-morrow 
morning." 

Meantime  several  of  the  village  watchmen  had 
come  up,  seeing  me  talking  with  the  head  men  of 
the  vilkge,  as  these  proved  to  be,  and,  not  stop- 
ping to  answer  my  question  about  shade,  they 
turned  to  these  watchmen  and  said : 

"  Here,  you,  Gdpal,  run  to  the  village  of  Kist- 
nagar,  and  you,  Malappa,  run  to  Kotta  Kota,  and 
you,  Sitadu,  run  to  Gollapalle,  and  you  here,  and 
you  there,  and  tell  them  all  that  the  man  with  the 
wonderful  books  has  come  and  that  he  has  a  cart- 
load more  for  sale ;  and  tell  them  to  come  in  and 
bring  their  money,  and  they  can  get  all  they  want 
and  talk  with  him,  too,  about  the  books.  Tell 
them  to  come  quick,  as  he  is  going  to  be  here 
only  to-day,  and  they  may  never  have  another 
chance." 


THE  MAN  IVITH  THE  IVONDERFUL  BOOKS    53 

Ere  I  had  reached  the  grove  to  which  they  took 
me  I  saw  the  men  running  through  the  mountain- 
passes  to  villages  three,  five,  and  seven  miles 
away,  to  tell  them  to  come  in  and  get  the  won- 
derful books,  and  hear  the  wonderful  news  of  the 
divine  Redeemer,  who  could  take  away  all  our 
sins. 

Before  we  had  taken  our  breakfast — for  we  had 
taken  only  a  cup  of  coffee  on  starting  at  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning — and  were  rested  enough 
to  begin  to  talk — for  we  had  already  preached  in 
a  number  of  different  villages  that  morning — 
deputations  from  the  different  villages  to  which 
news  had  been  sent  began  to  arrive,  ready  to 
hear  the  news  and  buy  the  books.  They  kept  us 
talking  from  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  until  ten 
o'clock  at  night.  For  by  the  time  we  had  told 
the  story  of  stories  to  one  group,  another  group 
from  another  village,  a  little  farther  away,  would 
have  come ;  and  when  we  went  to  tell  the  story 
over  again  to  them,  the  first  group  would  not  go 
away,  for  they  said  it  was  so  good  they  wanted 
to  hear  it  over  again. 

The  crowd  around  us  kept  increasing  as  we  took 
turns  in  talking  and  resting,  giving  each  time  the 
story,  but  each  time  adding  new  incidents  in  the 
life  of  the  God-man,  and  new  phases  of  redeem- 
ing love,  until  at  ten  o'clock  we  told  them  that 
we  must  lie  down  and  rest  now,  as  we  were  to 


54  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

start  on  early  in  the  morning,  and  they  then 
reluctantly  withdrew. 

As  we  lay  on  our  camp-cots  we  saw  through- 
out the  night,  whenever  we  opened  our  eyes, 
strange  lights  flickering  in  the  streets  of  the  town 
near  by,  and  at  daylight,  as  we  rose  to  go  on  our 
journey,  they  came  out  from  the  town  with  the 
different  books  in  their  hands,  with  the  leaves 
turned  down  here  and  there ;  for  they  said  they 
had  been  reading  the  books  all  night,  so  as  to  see 
whether  they  understood  them  before  we  left,  for 
they  never  expected  to  find  any  one  else  to  ex- 
plain the  books  after  we  had  gone.  How  eagerly 
they  listened  as  I  answered  the  questions  they 
asked  from  the  turned-down  leaves!  for  they 
wanted  to  be  sure  they  knew  how  to  obtain  this 
salvation. 

I  do  not  give  this  as  a  sample  of  what  usually 
occurs  on  our  preaching  tours.  God  does  not 
often  lift  the  veil ;  He  bids  us  walk  by  faith,  not 
by  sight.  We  often  meet  with  opposition  or, 
worse  still,  with  indifference.  We  often  wail  with 
Isaiah,  "  Lord,  who  hath  believed  our  report,  and 
to  whom  is  the  arm  of  the  Lord  revealed?  "  But 
now  and  then  God  sees  fit  to  raise  one  corner  of 
the  veil  and  let  us  see  what  may  occur  in  scores 
of  scattered  villages,  of  which  we  shall  for  the  first 
time  learn  when  we  meet  those  redeemed  ones  in 
the  land  where  all  is  known. 


:         THE  MAN  IVITH  THE  IVONDERFUL  BOOKS    55 

^deantime  this  one  incident  in  my  own  experi- 
ence many  years  ago  is  my  answer  to  those  who 
ask,  "  What  is  the  use  of  scattering  books  and 
tracts  in  heathen  lands  without  the  living  mission- 
ary to  explain  them  ?  "  God  has  said,  "  My  Word 
shall  not  return  unto  Me  void,  but  it  shall  accom- 
plish that  which  I  please."  And  He  fulfils  His 
promise. 


Ill 


ENCOUNTER   WITH   A  TEN-FOOT   SERPENT, 
AND   ITS   RESULTS 

The  week  following  the  incident  of  "  the  man 
with  the  wonderful  books,"  described  in  the  last 
chapter,  occurred  an  incident  which  at  first  threat- 
ened to  be  damaging,  but  which  proved  helpful. 

We  were  now  in  the  great  teak-wood  forest, 
with  trees  towering  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
above  the  woodman's  path,  up  which  we  were 
wending  our  way  to  the  great  Godavery  River, 
and  along  which  path  or  rough  cart-track  were 
clearings  every  few  miles,  and  villages  and  cul- 
tivation. We  had  that  morning  taken  a  long 
march,  preaching  and  disposing  of  Gospels  and 
tracts  in  every  village  and  hamlet  that  we  passed. 
At  ten  o'clock,  learning  from  our  guide  that  about 
a  mile  ahead  was  a  large  village  or  town,  I  rode 
on  in  advance  to  find  a  place  in  which  to  pitch 
our  tent. 

As  I  came  near  I  saw  the  elders  of  the  city 

56 


ENCOUNTER  IVITH  A   TEN-FOOT  SERPENT    57 

coming  out  of  the  city  gates — for  it  was  an  old 
walled  town — to  meet  me.  Passing  the  salutations 
of  the  day,  I  asked  them  where  there  was  a  shady 
place  where  I  could  pitch  my  tent  for  the  day  and 
night. 

"  You  need  not  pitch  your  tent,"  they  replied ; 
*'  here  is  a  new  thatched  building  just  erected  for 
a  shelter  for  our  cattle.  That  will  be  fully  as 
comfortable  as  your  tent  and  will  save  the  trouble 
of  pitching;  please  accept  the  use  of  that." 

Close  by  us,  just  outside  the  gates  of  the  town, 
was  this  new  building,  with  roof  and  walls  made 
of  palm-leaves,  and  with  an  open  doorway,  but 
no  door.  The  floor  was  the  virgin  sod,  still 
green,  for  it  had  not  been  used. 

I  accepted  their  hospitality,  and  as  soon  as  my 
cart  came  up  I  took  out  my  camp-cot,  and  put  it 
in  the  middle  of  the  hut,  and  threw  myself  down 
to  rest  while  my  servant  was  preparing  my  break- 
fast. My  native  assistants  had  not  yet  come  up, . 
as  they  had  found  another  little  hamlet  after  I 
left  them,  and  had  stopped  to  preach  in  that. 

I  was  lying  on  my  back  on  my  cot,  reading  my 
Greek  Testament,  which  had  been  my  daily  com- 
panion from  a  boy.  I  was  holding  it  up  over  me, 
reading  a  little,  and  shutting  my  eyes  and  think- 
ing a  Uttle.  This  continued  for  near  half  an  hour. 
At  length  the  passage  I  was  reading  was  finished, 
and  I  let  the  arm  that  was  holding  the  book  fall. 


58  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

Then,  and  not  until  then,  did  I  become  aware 
that  a  huge  serpent  was  coiled  around  one  of  the 
bamboo  rafters,  with  some  four  feet  of  his  body- 
hanging  down  directly  over  my  head,  with  his 
eyes  flashing  and  his  tongue  darting  out,  just 
above  where  my  book  had  been  and  had  concealed 
him.  He  had  evidently  been  asleep  in  the  roof; 
the  putting  in  of  my  cot  had  awakened  him. 
While  I  was  reading  he  had  let  down  one  third 
of  his  body  or  more,  and  was  looking  to  see  what 
this  leprous-looking  white  man  was  about,  for  he 
had  probably  never  seen  a  white  man  before. 

His  darting  tongue  was  almost  within  arm's- 
length  of  my  face  when  I  caught  sight  of  him.  I 
remembered  that  during  my  course  at  the  medical 
college,  in  the  skylight  dissecting-room  of  the  old 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  New  York, 
I  once  looked  attentively  over  the  muscles  of  the 
human  frame,  and  wondered  whether  a  person 
lying  down  could  jump  horizontally  without  first 
erecting  himself.  I  found  it  could  be  done  with 
proper  incentives,  for  off  that  cot  I  came  at  one 
bound  to  my  feet  without  first  raising  my  head, 
for  that  serpent  was  too  near  it. 

Running  to  the  door,  I  seized  an  iron  spit  some 
five  or  six  feet  long,  with  a  sharp  point,  used  for 
roasting  purposes  in  the  jungle,  and  which  was  in 
the  cart.  Coming  back  and  using  that  as  a  spear, 
I  was  successful  at  the  first  thrust  in  piercing  the 


ENCOUNTER  IVITH  A   TEN-FOOT  SERPENT    59 

body  of  the  serpent  where  it  was  coiled  around 
the  rafter. 

But  then  I  found  myself  in  another  difficulty. 
I  caught  hold  of  the  spear  to  keep  it  from  falling 
out  and  releasing  the  serpent,  but  the  serpent 
would  draw  back,  and  with  a  tremendous  hiss 
strike  at  my  hand  that  held  the  spear,  and  come 
suspiciously  near  hitting  it  with  his  tremendous 
extended  fangs.  If  I  should  let  go,  the  spit  would 
fall  out  and  the  serpent  would  get  away,  and  he 
and  I  could  not  sleep  in  that  hut  together  that 
night,  especially  after  he  had  been  wounded  by 
me.  If  I  held  on,  his  body  might  slide  down  the 
spit  until  he  could  reach  my  hand,  which  might 
be  fatal  to  me  instead  of  to  him. 

However,  in  answer  to  my  lusty  calls,  my  ser- 
vant soon  appeared  with  a  bamboo  club.  Hold- 
ing the  spit  with  my  left  hand  and  taking  the  club 
in  my  right,  I  administered  to  the  serpent  a  head- 
ache, from  which  he  died.  As  I  took  him  down 
and  held  him  up  by  the  middle,  on  the  spit,  to  the 
level  of  my  shoulder,  both  head  and  tail  touched 
the  floor,  showing  that  he  was  about  ten  feet  long. 

Just  as  I  was  holding  him  in  this  position  one 
of  the  village  watchmen  passed  the  door  of  the 
hut  going  into  the  village,  and  saw  what  I  had 
done.  It  occurred  to  me  at  once  that  now  I 
should  find  myself  in  a  "  bad  box,"  for  the  people 
revere  serpents  as  demigods.     They  dare  not  kill 


60  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

them  or  harm  them,  and  will  always  beg  for  the 
life  of  a  serpent  if  they  see  any  one  else  killing 
one.  They  think  that  if  you  harm  one  of  these 
deadly  serpents  it  or  its  kin  will  wage  war  on  you 
and  your  kin  and  descendants  until  your  kin  are 
exterminated.  I,  a  missionary,  had  come  there 
to  preach ;  how  would  they  hear  me  when  I  had 
killed  one  of  their  gods  ? 

Knowing  that  the  news  had  gone  into  the  town 
to  the  elders,  I  began  to  prepare  my  line  of  de- 
fense, for  I  thought  that  they  would  soon  come 
out  to  call  jne  to  account.  I  remembered  a  verse 
of  one  of  their  Telugu  poets  commending  the  kill- 
ing of  venomous  reptiles,  and  having  a  copy  of 
that  poet  with  me,  I  opened  my  book-box  and 
took  it  out,  but  had  not  found  the  verse  when  I 
saw  the  chief  men  of  the  place  coming  out  toward 
the  hut. 

To  my  astonishment,  they  had  native  brass 
trays  in  their  hands,  with  sweetmeats,  cocoanuts, 
limes,  and  burning  incense-sticks  on  them ;  and 
as  they  came  to  the  door  of  the  hut  they  prostrated 
themselves  before  me,  and  then  presented  these 
offerings ;  for  they  said  I  had  rid  them  of  their 
most  dangerous  enemy,  that  that  serpent  had  been 
the  bane  of  that  village  for  several  years.  It  had 
bitten  and  killed  some  of  their  kine  and,  I  think, 
also  a  child.  They  had  made  every  effort  to  drive 
it  away  from  the  village  by  burning  straw  closer 


ENCOUNTER  IVITH  A   TEN-FOOT  SERPENT    61 

and  closer  to  it  to  make  it  go  farther  and  farther 
away,  but  it  would  always  return.  They  had  tried 
to  coax  it  away  by  putting  little  cups,  each  hold- 
ing half  a  teaspoonful  of  milk,  every  two  yards 
or  so  out  into  the  jungle ;  but  as  soon  as  it  had 
drunk  all  the  milk  it  wanted  it  would  turn  round 
and  crawl  back  into  the  village  and  into  some 
house,  and  then  the  people  of  that  house  would 
have  to  vacate  until  it  chose  to  leave.  It  had 
become  the  terror  of  the  village. 

But  now  I,  a  stranger  and  foreigner,  had  killed 
it  without  their  knowledge  or  consent.  That  was 
their  safety  ;  for  if  they  had  seen  me  doing  it  they 
would  have  begged  for  its  life,  lest  they  be  taken 
as  accomplices.  Now  it  was  dead,  and  they  were 
guiltless,  and  it  could  harm  them  and  theirs  no 
more.  Would  I  please  accept  these  sweets? 
They  had  sent  to  the  flock  in  the  fields  to  have  a 
fat  sheep  brought  me  as  an  offering,  and  would  I 
please  accept  the  sheep?  Now  whatever  I  had 
to  say  they  would  listen  to  me  gladly,  for  was  not 
I  their  deliverer?  The  sheep  was  brought;  my- 
self, associates,  and  attendants  made  a  sumptuous 
dinner  from  it.  The  serpent  was  not  a  cobra, — 
cobras  never  grow  so  large, — but  it  was  said  to 
be  equally  venomous. 

When  the  heat  of  the  day  was  over  we  all  went 
into  the  town  to  preach.  At  the  gate  was  the 
village  crier  with  his  tom-tom,  or  small  drum ;  and 


62  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

as  soon  as  we  appeared  he  went  through  all  the 
streets  beating  the  tom-tom  and  crying,  "  Come, 
all  ye  people ;  come  and  hear  what  the  serpent- 
destroyer  has  to  say  to  us."  A  royal  audience 
we  had,  while  we  spoke  to  them  of  the  "  old  ser- 
pent "  and  his  deeds,  and  Christ,  who  bruised  the 
serpent's  head.  The  killing  of  the  serpent,  instead 
of  proving  a  bar,  had  opened  a  door  of  access  to 
the  gospel. 


IV 


THE   GOSPEL   RIVER   IN   INDIA:    HOW   IT 
FLOWS 

We  have  in  India  a  magnificent  river,  the 
sacred  Godavery,  which,  rising  on  the  western 
coast,  only  a  few  miles  from  the  Sea  of  Arabia, 
among  the  hills  to  the  north  of  Bombay,  flows 
diagonally  across  the  entire  country  to  the  south- 
east, and  discharges  its  waters  into  the  Bay  of 
Bengal,  north  of  Madras. 

The  monsoon,  or  rainy  season,  on  the  western 
coast  is  different  from  that  on  the  eastern,  so  that 
the  river  comes  freighted  with  its  mighty  life-giv- 
ing current  during  our  dry  season,  flowing  with 
swollen  stream  through  a  region  parched  and 
verdureless.  Some  thirty  years  ago  the  govern- 
ment of  India,  incited  thereto  by  an  enthusias- 
tic and  dauntless  English  engineer  who  had  on 
military  duty  traversed  the  country,  constructed 
an  annicut,  or  dam,  over  two  miles  in  length, 
costing  four  millions  of  dollars,  across  this  mighty 

river,  thirty  miles  from  the  sea,  raising  the  level 
63 


64  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

of  its  current  some  thirty  feet,  and,  digging  chan- 
nels great  and  small,  poured  out  its  vivifying 
waters  over  a  million  acres  of  what  had  been  an 
arid  plain. 

Behold  the  change.  What  had  for  centuries 
been  worthless  sand-plains  were  converted  into 
fruitful  rice-fields;  the  squalid  inhabitants  have 
become  thrifty  farmers;  the  famine- stricken  re- 
gion is  a  garden  of  plenty.  What  has  wrought 
this  marvel  in  these  now  harvest-laden  counties? 
It  is  but  the  flowing  in  of  the  waters  of  that  his- 
toric river. 

British  skill  did  not  create  the  waters  of  the 
Godavery.  For  centuries  it  had  flowed  as  now. 
Bubbling  up  from  springs  among  the  Marathi 
Hills,  it  runs  a  tiny  brook ;  other  springs  from 
hillside  and  dale  feed  it  as  it  speeds  along; 
affluents  from  Berar,  Nagpore,  Hyderabad,  Bus- 
tar,  increase  its  volume ;  it  becomes  a  river.  I 
have  followed  its  banks  or  traveled  on  its  bosom 
for  hundreds  of  miles.  It  is  here  a  rapid  torrent ; 
it  is  there  a  placid  stream ;  it  is  yonder  a  leaping 
cataract;  here  it  broadens  into  a  lake;  there  it 
foams  between  the  perpendicular  walls  of  a  moun- 
tain gorge,  as  it  bursts  through  the  Eastern  Ghats, 
whence  in  a  broad  and  even  stream  it  flows 
through  sixty  miles  of  rolling  country  and  of  plain 
until  it  buries  itself  in  the  sea.  It  is  ever  flowing, 
pure,  refreshing,  life-giving. 


THE   GOSPEL  Rll^ER  IN  INDIA  66 

On  its  banks  successive  generations  had  been 
living  for  ages  and  had  seen  its  everlasting  flood ; 
successive  generations  had  eked  out  a  squalid  ex- 
istence on  the  sand-plains  a  hundred  miles  south- 
ward; but  neither  had  they  comprehended  its 
possibilities  for  good  nor  attempted  to  utilize  its 
wasted  waters.  It  was  left  for  a  Christian  nation, 
educated  by  the  Bible,  brought  by  the  Bible  and 
the  Bible's  Author  to  their  present  proud  position 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth — it  was  left  for 
such  a  nation  to  discover  the  possibilities,  to  ad- 
vance the  capital,  to  furnish  the  skill,  to  turn  the 
watercourses  upon  the  desert,  and,  while  reaping 
their  portion  of  the  gladsome  harvest,  to  confer 
life,  as  it  were,  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the 
droughty  plains. 

That  river  is  a  type,  those  fruitful  gardens  an 
illustration,  God's  Word,  the  divine  revelation 
of  Himself,  His  works,  His  purposes  to  sinful 
man,  is  that  river.  Its  fountains  were  from  the 
Eden  showers  of  grace  on  undeserving  man.  The 
volume  of  the  river  was  increased  by  the  succes- 
sive revelations  to  Enoch,  Noah,  Abraham,  Jacob, 
Joseph,  Moses,  David,  and  the  prophets.  A 
stream  flowing  on,  it  passed  the  narrow  barriers 
of  the  Jewish  walls,  and  with  the  coming  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  His  life,  His  sacrificial  death,  it 
widened  out  into  the  blessed  "  river  of  salvation," 
broad,  placid^  refreshing,  life-giving,  to  all  who 


66  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

come  under  its  influence.  The  missicmary,  the 
Bible,  the  tract  societies,  are  striving  to  make  this 
stream  flow  over  the  arid  moral  wastes  of  sin- 
scorched  India  and  cause  it  to  exchange  its  spir- 
itual desolation  for  the  fruitful  beauty  of  a  garden 
of  the  Lord. 

When  the  Godavery  annicut  was  completed, 
and  the  main  channel  that  should  take  the  stream 
down  through  the  counties  was  well  under  way, 
the  government  sent  out  messengers  to  all  hold- 
ers of  land  to  tell  them  what  the  water  would  do 
for  them,  what  harvests  it  would  produce,  and 
that,  at  a  fixed  price,  any  who  wished  it  could 
have  side-channels  dug  to  their  own  land  and 
avail  themselves  of  the  water. 

So  are  the  agents  of  the  missionary,  the  Bible, 
and  the  tract  societies  working  in  India,  sent  out 
with  the  message,  oral  and  printed,  telling  the  peo- 
ple of  the  "  river  of  the  water  of  life  "  ;  sent  out  to 
cry  aloud  in  every  market-place,  "  Ho,  every  one 
that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the  waters,  and  he  that 
hath  no  money ;  come  ye,  buy,  and  eat ;  yea, 
come,  buy  wine  and  milk  without  money  and 
without  price." 

These  societies  do  not  create  the  stream.  Like 
the  Godavery,  it  has  been  flowing  for  centurie?  in 
rich  abundance;  but  it  had  not  been  turned  in 
upon  India,  and  India  remained  a  moral  sand- 
plain,  verdureless  and  fruitless.     It  was  left  to 


THE  GOSPEL  RIVER  IN  INDIA  67 

foreign  Christian  nations,  to  us  of  this  age,  aye,  in 
a  measure  to  us  of  this  nation,  to  introduce  those 
streams  to  India's  teeming  milHons.  It  is  true 
that  on  England,  as  the  conquering  nation,  fell  the 
heaviest  responsibility ;  and  hundreds  of  her  sons 
and  daughters,  and  thousands  of  pounds  of  her 
wealth,  consecrated  yearly  to  the  work,  show  that 
she  is  not  altogether  unmindful  of  her  sacred 
duty,  of  her  glorious  opportunity.  But  she  alone 
is  not  equal  to  the  task  of  converting  all  India  into 
a  garden  of  the  Lord  in  this  generation. 

British  gold  and  British  skill  could  dam  the 
river,  though  two  miles  broad  and  with  forty  feet 
deep  of  loose  sand  lying  underneath  the  flowing 
water;  they  could  thus  change  a  dozen  sterile 
counties  into  a  fruitful  garden.  But  when  Chris- 
tian England  looked  upon  the  moral  waste  cov- 
ering all  India  with  her  two  hundred  and 
eighty-seven  millions  of  Christless  inhabitants, 
it  is  no  wonder  that  she  stood  back  aghast  and 
eagerly  summoned  to  her  aid  her  willing  allies  of 
every  Christian  nation.  And  they  have  come. 
Germany,  Switzerland,  Denmark,  Canada,  and 
the  United  States,  as  well  as  England,  Scotland, 
Ireland,  and  Wales,  each  has  her  corps  of  labor- 
ers on  the  field  engaged  in  the  hopeless  and  yet 
hopeful  work. 

It  is  a  matter  of  joy  that  the  myriad  Christians 
of  America  of  different  churches,  each  through 


68  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

its  own  missionary  board  and  all  through  the 
Bible  and  tract  societies,  have  their  share  in  this 
work.  Let  me  point  out  here  some  of  the  ways 
in  which  we  are  endeavoring  to  carry  out  this 
work,  especially  through  the  aid  of  printed  truth, 
for  the  other  forms  of  labor  are  better  known. 

The  Bible  must  be  translated  into  the  many 
languages  of  India,  and  printed  and  scattered  all 
through  the  country ;  for  that  is  the  great  channel 
for  conveying  the  streams  of  salvation  to  the 
people.  In  this  work  both  of  translation  and  of 
circulation  our  own  American  Bible  Society  has 
borne  a  most  admirable  part.  The  Bible  has 
already  been  translated  into  eighteen  of  the  chief 
languages  of  India,  and  the  New  Testament  or 
parts  thereof  into  twenty  of  the  minor  languages, 
and  is  being  circulated  by  the  hundred  thousand 
yearly. 

The  Bible  is  the  main  channel ;  we  must  have 
side-channels  and  distributing  rivulets  to  bring  it 
within  the  knowledge  and  reach  of  all.  Dropping 
now  the  figure,  let  me  speak  of  each  of  the  agen- 
cies, aside  from  the  Bible,  that  we  use  for  bringing 
the  news  of  salvation  in  printed  form  before  the 
people  of  every  age  and  class  and  station. 

Wishing  to  catch  the  attention  of  the  young 
while  their  minds  are  easily  impressed,  we  com- 
mence with  the  school-book.  I  have  lying  before 
me  a  first  book  or  primer  in  the  Telugu  language. 


THE   GOSPEL  RIVER  IN  INDIA  69 

It  begins  with  the  alphabet  of  five  hundred  and 
thirty-nine  characters,  and  goes  on  to  syllables 
and  easy  sentences.  Among  the  easy  sentences 
are  these:  "There  is  but  one  God."  In  that 
sentence  the  foundation  of  the  Hindu  system  is 
undermined.  "  God  is  a  Spirit ;  He  has  no  body, 
no  visible  form."  Idolatry  receives  a  stab;  for 
how  can  an  image  represent  Him  that  is  without 
visible  form  ?  "  God  is  holy  ;  in  Him  there  is  no 
sin."  If  this  is  received  by  the  young  minds  as 
true,  the  legends  of  their  impure  gods  are  swept 
away,  "  God  is  love."  This  is  a  new  conception 
to  the  Hindu  mind.  They  fear,  they  dread,  their 
gods ;  they  make  offerings  to  them  to  avert  their 
wrath ;  but  they  have  no  thought  of  God  as  a  lov- 
ing Father.  "  God  so  loved  us  that  He  sent  His 
own  Son  to  save  us."  Here  the  young  Hindu 
receives  his  first  idea  of  a  loving  God  reaching 
down  to  save  sinful  man. 

Thus,  mingled  in  with  other  matter,  come  these 
germs  of  saving  truth ;  and  on  the  back  cover  is 
printed  in  large  type  the  Lord's  Prayer,  that  all 
may  learn  it;  and  many  not  yet  Christians  love 
to  use  it.  These  first  books  are  sold  at  from  one 
to  two  cents  each,  and  so  much  better  are  they 
prepared  and  printed  than  the  native  first  books, 
and  so  much  cheaper,  that  hundreds  of  heathen 
schoolmasters  introduce  them  into  their  schools  in 
spite  of  their  Christian  teaching.    On  one  occasion 


70  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

I  sold  thirty-five  copies  to  a  single  heathen  school- 
master to  supply  his  younger  pupils.  Eighty 
thousand  copies  of  this  one  little  book,  in  the 
Telugu  language  alone,  have  already  been  sold, 
and  probably  twice  that  number  in  all  the  lan- 
guages of  India  together.  These  primers  are 
followed  by  Christian  first  readers  and  second 
readers  and  other  school-books,  all  pervaded  with 
Christian  truth — all  sold  for  cost,  or  less,  to  non- 
Christians  who  will  buy. 

Story-books,  too,  by  the  hundred  are  issued ; 
little  stories  that  will  take  among  boys  and  girls, 
that  will  be  read  for  the  story,  but  each  one  hav- 
ing some  Christian  truth  or  moral  precept  incul- 
cated in  it,  some  with  pictures  and  some  without. 
The  smallest  are  four  inches  long  and  two  and  a 
half  broad,  with  about  sixteen  or  twenty  pages, 
and  with  colored  paper  covers.  They  are  sold  for 
one  pie  each.  The  pie  is  their  smallest  coin  and 
is  worth  a  quarter  of  a  cent,  so  that  every  boy  and 
girl  can  purchase  a  little  truth-bearing  story- 
book. Of  these  hundreds  of  thousands  are  sold 
every  year  among  heathen  children,  and  their  in- 
fluence for  good  is  seen  in  after  years  in  many  a 
life. 


THE   GOSPEL   RIVER   IN  INDIA:    THE 
"GOSPEL   IN   SONG" 

I  COME  now  to  speak  of  the  use  of  the  "  Gos- 
pel in  Song."  The  Hindus,  especially  theTelugu 
people,  among  whom  I  have  worked  so  many 
years,  are  very  fond  of  poetry  and  of  music. 
All  their  ancient  literature  is  in  poetic  form ;  their 
grammar  and  geography,  their  arithmetic  and 
astronomy,  their  works  on  medicine  and  science 
and  law  that  have  come  down  from  former  ages, 
are  in  poetry,  which  they  always  intone  or  chant 
when  they  read  it.  Besides  this  they  have  sweet 
and  melodious  tunes  that  have  come  down  from 
great  antiquity,  and  of  these  they  are  very  fond. 
Of  these  old  tunes  we  make  use  as  a  vehicle  for 
the  gospel.  They  have,  indeed,  been  sung  to  the 
praises  of  their  false  gods,  often  to  libidinous 
words  that  no  respectable  man  or  woman  would 
listen  to  in  public  without  a  blush;  but  in  the 
desperate  conflict  that  is  going  on  between  the 
71 


72  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

powers  of  darkness  and  the  powers  of  light  in 
India,  wishing  to  seize  the  devil's  choicest  weapons 
to  thrust  him  with,  we  take  these  old  native  tunes 
and  convert  them  by  marrying  them  to  Christian 
words,  and  again  send  them  coursing  through  the 
country ;  and  many,  glad  to  be  able  to  sing  the 
old  tunes  to  words  that  do  not  make  them  blush 
and  which  at  least  teach  a  correct  morality,  will 
join  in  singing  the  new  words  for  the  sake  of  the 
old  tunes. 

I  have  before  me  the  Nistdraratndkara,  or 
"  Gospel  in  Song,"  issued  many  years  ago  in  the 
Telugu  language.  In  it  the  whole  plan  of  salva- 
tion is  clearly  set  forth  in  songs  set  to  their  most 
loved  native  tunes;  and  many  a  Hindu  who  has 
received  this  has  begun  by  trying  to  see  how  the 
new  words  fitted  to  the  old  tune,  and  has  sung 
and  sung  until  he  has  sung  away  his  prejudices, 
and  has  sung  the  knowledge  and  the  love  of  God 
and  of  His  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  into  his  heart,  and 
has  gone  on  singing  of  his  Jesus,  his  Saviour,  and 
will  keep  up  his  singing  until,  thus  brought  in,  he 
joins  in  singing  the  song  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb. 

Who  originated  this  book  we  do  not  know;  it 
was  in  use  in  several  of  the  languages  of  India 
before  it  was  translated  into  Telugu ;  but  we  do 
know  that  In  each  of  the  eighteen  different  lan- 
guages in  which  it  is  issued  it  has  been  the  means 
of  leading  many  souls  out  of  the  thraldom  of 


THE  "GOSPEL  IN  SONG"  73 

Hindu  superstition  into  the  liberty  of  Jesus  Christ 
There  are  many  other  poetical  tracts,  large  and 
small,  issued  with  the  same  intent,  which  are  will- 
ingly received  and  widely  sung  by  those  who  thus 
gain  their  first  knowledge  of  Jesus  and  His  sal- 
vation. 

The  Telugus  also  readily  catch  up  and  become 
very  fond  of  our  Hvelier  American  tunes,  espe- 
cially those  with  a  chorus  or  refrain ;  and  we  make 
use  of  them,  for  the  novelty  of  the  foreign  music 
sometimes  rivets  their  attention.  Many  years  ago 
I  translated  into  Telugu  the  children's  hymn : 

"  Jesus  loves  me ;  this  I  know, 
For  the  Bible  tells  me  so," 

and  taught  it  to  the  children  of  our  Telugu  day- 
school.  It  was  scarcely  a  week  before,  as  I  was 
going  through  the  narrow  streets  of  the  native 
town,  horseback,  I  heard  singing  that  sounded 
natural  down  a  side  street.  I  stopped  to  listen, 
cautiously  drawing  up  to  the  corner,  where  I  could 
unobserved  look  down  the  streetand  see  and  hear ; 
and  there  was  a  little  heathen  boy,  with  heathen 
men  and  women  standing  around  him,  singing 
away  at  the  top  of  his  voice: 

"  Jesus  loves  me ;  this  I  know, 
For  the  Bible  tells  me  so.  .  ,  , 
Yes,  Jesus  loves  me; 
The  Bible  tells  me  so." 


74  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

And  as  he  completed  the  verse  the  question 
arose,  "  Sonny,  where  did  you  learn  that  song?" 

"  Over  at  the  mission  school,"  was  the  answer. 

"Who  is  that  Jesus,  and  what  is  the  Bible?" 

"  Oh,  the  Bible  is  the  book  sent  from  God,  they 
say,  to  teach  us  how  to  get  to  heaven,  and  Jesus 
is  the  name  of  the  divine  Redeemer,  that  came 
into  the  world  to  save  us  from  our  sins;  that  is 
what  the  missionaries  say." 

"  Well,  the  song  is  a  nice  one,  anyhow.  Come, 
sing  us  some  more." 

And  so  the  little  boy  went  on,  a  heathen  him- 
self, and  singing  to  the  heathen  about  Jesus  and 
His  love. 

"  That  is  preaching  the  gospel  by  proxy,"  I  said 
to  myself,  as  I  turned  my  pony  and  rode  away, 
well  satisfied  to  leave  my  little  proxy  to  tell  to  his 
interested  audience  all  he  himself  knew,  and  sing 
to  them  over  and  over  that  sweet  song  of  salvation. 

The  tune  of  "  Hold  the  Fort "  is  one  that 
catches  the  ear  and  rings  in  the  memory  of  men 
of  every  clime.  Go  where  you  will  in  foreign 
lands,  it  is  hummed  and  whistled  by  men  and 
played  by  bands  who  do  not  even  know  the 
words.  This  seemed  a  fitting  winged  messenger 
to  carry  the  gospel  message  to  our  song-loving 
Telugus,  and  I  prepared  such  a  message  in  their 
language  adapted  to  the  tune  and  sent  it  forth  on 
its  journey. 


THE  "GOSPEL  IN  SONG"  76 

The  first  time  we  used  it  among  the  heathen 
we  had  gone  into  the  native  town  to  hold  a  gos- 
pel preaching  service.  We  sang  this  "  gospel 
message  "  as  a  rallying-cry,  and  as  we  sang  the 
chorus  again  and  again,  at  the  close  of  each  verse 
one  and  another  of  the  audience  were  heard,  at 
first  faintly  and  tentatively,  to  join  in  the  chorus, 
which  in  the  Telugu  runs  thus : 

"  Y^su  Krfstu  ndku  gdnu 
Pranam  icchenu ; 
Tana  yodda  nannu  pilchen. 
Krfstu  vacchedan." 

Rendered  into  English,  the  message  would  run: 

"  Come,  ye  people !  hear  the  message 
By  the  Saviour  given  : 
God  the  Father  loves  His  children, 
Wishes  them  forgiven. 

Chorus : 
"  Jesus  Christ,  my  loving  Saviour, 
Shed  His  blood  for  me ; 
Now  He  bids  me  come  unto  Him; 
Christ,  I'll  come  to  Thee. 

"  God  so  loved  the  world  of  sinners, 
Ruined  by  the  fall, 
That  He  sought  a  way  to  save  them 
That  might  save  them  all. 

Jesus  Christ,  etc. 

"  For  us  all,  to  die  and  suffer, 
His  own  Son  He  gave, 


76  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

That  whoe'er  believeth  on  Him 
Might  not  die,  but  live. 

Jesus  Christ,  etc. 

"  '  Come,  ye  weary,  heavy  laden,' 
Is  my  Lord's  behest, 
'  All  your  sins  and  sorrows  leaving. 
Come  to  Me,  and  rest.' 

Jesus  Christ,  etc." 

After  we  had  closed  the  meeting,  singing  the 
song  again  in  closing,  and  were  going  home,  I 
heard  in  the  stillness  of  the  night  air  one  of  our 
heathen  audience  singing  on  his  way  to  his  house 
the  refrain,  "  Kristu  vacchedan  "  ("  Christ,  I'll 
come  to  Thee  "),  and  my  prayer  went  up  that 
that  message  and  that  refrain,  so  readily  caught 
up,  might  go  ringing  through  the  country  and 
lead  many  a  sin-burdened  Hindu  to  sing  from  his 
heart,  "  Christ,  I'll  come  to  Thee." 

We  have  a  Christian  song  married  to  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  of  the  ancient  native  melodies,  that 
is  known  all  through  the  country.  Its  theme  is 
the  insufficiency  of  human  schemes  and  human 
help  to  reHeve  the  burdened  soul  of  sin,  and  the 
sufficiency  and  the  love  of  Christ.  Myself  and 
native  assistants  have  sung  this  song  in  hundreds, 
yes,  in  thousands,  of  different  native  towns  all  up 
through  the  Telugu  country.  It  is  one  of  those 
tunes  that  linger  on  the  ear  and  prompt  a  repeti- 
tion. The  Telugu  hymn  runs  thus,  for  the  refrain 
always  comes  first  in  Telugu  music : 


THE  "GOSPEL  IN  SONG"  77 


Refrain  : 
**  Nf  charanamul^  nammiti,  nammiti ; 
NI  pddamuM  battiti,  battiti. 


••  Dikkfka  Nlv^  tsakkagS  rdv^? 

Mikkili  mrokkudu,  mrokkudu,  mrokkadu. 

II 
"  Aihika  sukhamu  narisiti  nitya, 
Mahahd  drohini,  drohini,  drohini." 

Rendered  into  the  same  meter  in  English,  it  is  as 
follows : 

Refrain  : 
"  Thy  refuge,  safe  and  free,  would  I  seek,  blessed  Jesus ; 
Thy  mercy-giving  feet  would  I  clasp,  blessed  Jesus. 

I 
"  My  only  help  art  Thou ;  wilt  Thou  not  hear  me? 
for  on  Thee,  bowing  low  at  Thy  feet,  do  I  call. 
Thy  refuge,  etc. 

II 

"  The  fleeting  joys  of  earth  have  not  I  tasted? 
Traitor  I  wandered  far,  far  away,  far  from  Thee. 
Thy  refuge,  etc. 

Ill 
"  My  own  works,  all  so  vile,  filled  with  pollution, 
I  abhor,  I  renounce.     Saviour,  turn  me  not  away. 
Thy  refuge,  etc. 

IV 
"  My  hard  and  sinful  will,  my  baser  passions, 

Pluck  them  out,  drive  them  hence ;  free  me,  Lord,  deliver  me. 
Thy  refuge,  etc. 


78  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

V 

"  My  nature  so  corrupt,  canst  Thou  not  change  it? 

Ease  my  pain,  O  my  God!     Save  me.  Lord,  save  me  nowr. 
Thy  refuge,  etc." 

I  well  remember  one  evening  in  1863,  as  we 
were  out  on  a  long  preaching  tour  of  several 
months  up  through  a  native  kingdom,  when  we 
were  far  beyond  where  any  missionary  had  ever 
been,  and  where  the  name  of  Jesus  had  never  yet 
been  heard,  we  went  into  the  compactly  built 
town  near  which,  in  a  shady  grove,  our  tent  was 
pitched,  to  preach  of  Jesus  and  His  salvation. 
The  people  of  the  town  had  seen  us  pitch  our 
tent  as  we  had  finished  our  morning  journey,  and 
wondered  what  we  had  come  for.  As  the  sun 
was  going  down  we  went  into  the  streets  of  the 
town,  and  finding  an  open  market-place,  we  took 
our  stand  and  sang  that  song  with  its  sweet  re- 
frain, singing  the  refrain  first,  as  is  always  done 
in  native  music.  An  audience  soon  came  to- 
gether to  hear  the  music,  and  listened  with  won- 
der to  their  old  familiar  tune  and  its  new  words, 
with  their  strange  message  of  a  Saviour  from  sin. 
And  while  we  preached  of  Him  who  alone  was 
able  to  change  our  corrupt  nature,  renew  our  sin- 
ful will,  and  drive  out  our  baser  passions,  if  we 
would  only  seek  His  safe  and  free  refuge  and  with 
earnest  desire  clasp  His  mercy-giving  feet,  they 
listened  as  though  it  was  sweeter  news  than  any 


THE  "GOSPEL  IN  SONG"  79 

they  had  ever  heard  before.  We  sang  the  song 
again  before  we  left,  and  then  they  purchased  many 
copies  of  Gospels  and  tracts  and  of  the  "  Gospel 
in  Song,"  and  we  returned  to  our  tents  under  the 
trees,  to  stay  until  sunrise,  when  we  would  pass 
on  to  other  villages.  We  had  had  our  supper  and 
our  evening  worship,  and  had  retired,  and  all  was 
still,  when  through  the  trees  we  heard  the  people 
in  the  village  singing  over  the  refrain,  "  Ni  char- 
anamule  nammiti,  nammiti,"  and  then  they  took 
up  the  words  of  the  song,  "  My  only  help  art 
Thou ;  wilt  Thou  not  hear  me?  "  And  on  in  the 
night,  mingled  with  my  sleep,  I  was  conscious  of 
hearing  songs  of  redeeming  love,  sung  by  those 
Hindus,  who  had  until  that  day  never  heard  of  the 
Bible,  never  heard  the  name  of  that  Jesus  of  whose 
love  they  were  now  singing. 

The  "  Gospel  in  Song " — who  can  tell  its 
power?  In  giving  to  the  superstition-bound 
Hindus  this  facility  for  and  love  of  music,  God 
has  put  in  our  hands  one  of  our  keenest  weapons. 
We  do  well  if  we  use  it  to  its  utmost,  as  we  try  to 
do ;  for  I  have  only  hinted  at  a  few  of  the  many 
ways  in  which  we  use  it  to  bring  the  matchless 
love  of  Christ  before  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
India. 


VI 

THE   GOSPEL   RIVER  IN  INDIA:    THE 
FLEET-FOOTED   TRACT 

Among  the  agencies  for  diffusing  the  waters  of 
this  river  of  Ufe,  the  next  is  the  all- pervasive  tract, 
that  goes  wherever  the  alphabet  is  known.  This 
is  an  agency  of  which  we  make  extensive  use. 
Tracts  are  issued  in  every  variety  of  form,  on 
every  phase  of  Christian  truth,  in  all  the  lan- 
guages, at  all  prices  and  no  price,  and  circulated 
in  every  imaginable  way. 

The  leaflet,  or  single-page  tract,  is  scattered 
broadcast,  printed  on  a  little  slip  of  fancy- colored 
paper  to  attract  the  eye,  or  on  a  larger  leaf  when 
the  subject  requires  more  space,  sometimes  in 
prose,  sometimes  in  poetry,  some  in  parable,  some 
in  proverb,  some  in  questions,  some  in  brief  Bible 
story,  all  designed  to  excite  interest  and  provoke 
further  inquiry,  and  all  sent,  like  the  rain,  gratui- 
tously through  the  towns,  the  villages,  the  markets, 
the  fairs. 

But  are  they  not  misused  ?  Yes,  they  are  very 
80 


THE  FLEET-FOOTED    TRACT  81 

often.  Does  every  clover-seed  sprout  that  is  sown 
upon  the  field  ?  The  leaflet  has  been  used  by  the 
bazaar  man  to  wrap  up  snuff  for  his  customer  at 
the  fair;  and  when  the  customer  in  his  distant 
home  has  unwrapped  his  snuff,  he  has  read  the 
wrapper,  neatly  printed  in  his  own  language,  and 
reading  it  and  pondering  it,  he  has  been  led  to 
seek  for  further  light;  and  through  that  mer- 
chant's misuse  of  that  leaflet  his  customer  has 
been  brought  to  Jesus. 

The  tickets  which  we  give  the  patients  at  our 
mission  hospitals  and  dispensaries  are  really  little 
leaflet  tracts.  I  have  lying  before  me  one  in  the 
Telugu  language,  of  which  I  have  myself  printed 
thirty  thousand  and  given  them  to  patients  that 
have  come  for  treatment.  It  is  the  size  of  a  gen- 
tleman's visiting-card  and  has  two  leaves ;  it  is 
printed  on  thick,  strong  paper  that  will  not  wear 
out.  On  the  front  page  with  ornamental  border 
is  printed  "  Madanapalle  Free  Hospital,"  with 
blanks  for  number,  date,  and  patient's  name.  By 
that  number  he  is  registered,  and  his  disease, 
symptoms,  and  treatment  are  entered  on  the  book. 
This  ticket  is  given  to  the  out-patients.  Each 
time  one  comes  for  further  treatment  or  for  more 
medicine  the  patient  must  show  this  ticket.  They 
keep  them  very  carefully,  often  for  years,  lesrt 
perchance  they  want  to  come  again  and  need  this 
as  an  introduction.     As  the  patient  is  registered 


82  JN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

and  receives  his  number,  he  seats  himself  to  await 
his  turn  for  treatment,  and  opens  his  folded  ticket 
to  see  what  directions  it  contains  inside.  As  this 
may  be  the  only  glimmering  of  truth  that  some 
will  have  in  the  villages  from  which  some  of  these 
patients  come,  a  hundred  miles  away,  I  prepared 
the  most  concise  statement  of  Christian  truth  I 
could  and  printed  it  there.     He  reads : 

"  There  is  but  one  true  God.  He  created,  con- 
trols, and  preserves  all  things  that  exist;  He  is 
sinless,  but  we  are  filled  with  sin ;  He,  to  take 
away  our  sin,  sent  His  own  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  into 
this  world  as  a  divine  Redeemer.  That  divine 
Redeemer,  Jesus  Christ,  gave  His  life  as  a  pro- 
pitiatory sacrifice,  and  now  whoever  believes  on 
Him  and  prays  to  Him  will  receive  remission  of 
sins  and  eternal  life.  This  is  what  the  true  Veda, 
the  Holy  Bible,  teaches  us." 

He  turns  over  to  the  last  page  and  finds  a 
quotation  from  one  of  their  favorite  Telugu  poets, 
who  wrote  seven  centuries  ago ;  for  we  like,  as 
did  Paul,  to  clench  a  truth  by  saying,  "  One  of 
your  own  poets  has  said."     He  reads  in  Telugu  : 

"  The  soul  defiled  with  sin,  what  real  worship  pays  it? 
The  pot  unclean,  the  cookery,  who  eats  it? 
The  heart  impure,  though  it  essays  devotion, 
Can  Deity  receive  it?     Nay,  nay.     Be  pure,  O  man." 

And  we  add  below  this :  "  To  give  us  this  very 
purity  of  heart,  spoken  of  by  your  poet,  our  divine 


THE  FLEET-FOOTED   TRACT  83 

Redeemer,  Jesus  Christ,  came  into  this  world. 
Believe  in  Him." 

Fifty  miles  and  more  from  Madanapalle,  as  I 
have  been  traveling,  a  man  has  seen  me,  run  into 
his  house,  and  quickly  come  out  again,  holding 
out  one  of  these  tickets,  in  some  instances  several 
years  old,  as  shown  by  the  date,  and  claimed 
acquaintance  as  a  former  patient  of  mine;  and 
that  ticket  has  served  as  an  excellent  introduction 
to  my  preaching  there  and  then  to  all  the  people 
of  his  village. 

These  tickets  are  read.  I  met  upon  the  high- 
way one  day,  as  I  was  traveling  twenty  miles  from 
home,  a  Brahman,  who  stopped  me  and  asked  if 
I  were  not  the  missionary  doctor  from  Madana- 
palle. He  said  that  one  of  my  patients  had  taken 
home  his  ticket  to  his  village  eighty  miles  away, 
and  that  he  had  seen  it  and  read  it,  and  read  it 
again,  and  now  he  had  come  in  on  foot  all  that 
way  to  ask  me  more  about  that "  true  Veda  "  and 
the  Jesus  Christ  set  forth  in  that  little  ticket. 
Those  tickets  pay. 

Next  to  the  gratuitous  leaflets  we  have  small 
tracts  printed  in  book  form  with  colored  paper 
cover,  and  sold  for  one  pie,  or  a  quarter  of  a 
cent,  or  two  pies  or  three  pies  each.  We  sell 
as  many  as  we  can  instead  of  giving  them 
away ;  for  if  a  Hindu  pays  cash  for  a  thing  he 
thinks  more  of  it,  keeps  it  more  carefully,  and 


84  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

perhaps  will  lend  it  more  widely  than  if  he  gets 
it  for  nothing. 

Then  there  is  the  series  of  Bible  narratives  with 
full-page  pictures  printed  in  colors.  I  chance  to 
have  lying  before  me  "  The  History  of  Joseph  " 
in  that  form.  There  are  seven  full-page  illustra- 
tions and  nine  pages  of  narrative.  These  are  sold 
for  one  anna,  or  three  cents,  each,  and  are  very 
attractive  to  the  Hindus,  who  like  bright  colors ; 
and  the  Oriental  pictures,  with  the  characters  in 
a  garb  that  seems  so  strange  to  us,  have  a  home- 
like look  to  the  Hindus,  and  make  them  feel,  as 
they  look  at  these  Bible  characters,  that  the  Bible 
is  not  so  very  foreign  a  book,  after  all ;  and  so 
these  colored  picture-tracts  help  to  popularize  the 
truth  and  make  the  Hindu  more  ready  to  read  not 
only  the  narratives,  but  also  the  teachings,  of  the 
Christian's  Bible.  Brief  pictorial  lives  of  Christ 
are  thus  published,  and  seeing  that  He  was  not  a 
white  Englishman  in  stiff  English  costume,  but 
appeared  and  was  arrayed  much  like  themselves, 
they  feel  more  drawn  toward  Him,  or  less  repelled. 

We  have  also  a  series  of  nicely  printed  wall 
pictures  of  Bible  characters,  scenes,  and  incidents. 
They  are  on  stiff  paper,  about  sixteen  by  twenty- 
two  inches  in  size.  The  pictures  are  printed  in 
colors  in  England,  the  picture  covering  one  half 
the  page,  and  the  lower  half  left  blank;  and  so 
they  are  sent  out  to  Madras,  where  the  Christian 


THE  FLEt  I -FOOTED   TRACT  85 

Knowledge  Society  prints  on  each  the  story  or 
the  explanation  in  Telugu,  Tamil,  Kanarese,  or 
Hindustani,  and  mission  presses  in  other  parts  of 
India  print  the  same  in  the  languages  of  their 
districts.  These,  thus  printed,  are  sold  at  six 
cents  each. 

Some  years  ago  I  obtained  a  number  of  sets  of 
these  pictures  with  the  story  or  the  explanation  in 
the  different  languages  read  at  Madanapalle,  and 
hung  them  around  the  walls  of  our  free  reading- 
room,  with  an  intimation  that  copies  of  any  of 
them  could  be  had  for  two  annas,  or  six  cents, 
each. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  colporteur  in  charge 
came,  asking  me  to  order  another  lot,  as  these  had 
all  been  sold ;  and  most  of  the  purchasers  had  been 
well-to-do  non-Christians,  who  gladly  bought 
them,  in  spite  of  their  Bible  stories,  to  enliven  the 
walls  of  their  own  houses.  And  many  a  time,  as 
I  went  to  see  some  patient  in  a  high-caste  Hin- 
du's home,  I  found  some  of  these  pictures  on  the 
walls,  with  the  Bible  story  on  them,  where  all  the 
family  could  read.  The  infant  Jesus  at  Bethle- 
hem, the  boy  Jesus  in  the  temple,  talking  with  the 
gray-bearded  priests,  the  man  Jesus  raising  the 
widow's  son,  the  Christ  Jesus  talking  with  the 
woman  at  the  well,  all  in  their  richly  colored 
Oriental  costume,  appealed  to  their  sympathies, 
attracted  their  attention,  familiarized  them  with 


86  IN   THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

scriptural  imagery,  and  made  them  the  more 
ready  to  read  the  fuller  accounts  of  the  same  in- 
cidents in  the  "  true  Veda," 

Larger  tracts  of  fifty  or  more  pages  are  yet  sold 
for  one  cent  each.  We  always  sell  at  or  under 
cost,  for  our  object  is  to  circulate  as  broadly  as 
possible.  We  only  obtain  price  enough  to  secure 
good  usage  for  the  tract.  And  are  these  tracts 
read  ?     Some  are  not ;  some  are. 

Near  forty  years  ago  such  a  tract,  called 
"  Spiritual  Teaching,"  written  by  Dr.  H.  M. 
Scudder,  found  its  way  into  a  Telugu  village 
seventy-five  miles  northwest  of  my  present  station 
in  India.  It  fell  into  the  hands  of  one  of  the  head 
men  of  the  village.  He  was  a  high-caste  man  of 
noted  probity  of  character.  He  read  it,  and  then 
re-read  it  with  more  attention.  It  was  the  first 
he  had  heard  of  any  other  religion  than  Hinduism. 
He  had  always  longed  for  some  help  to  get  rid  of 
his  sin ;  this  opened  to  him  the  way  to  get  such 
help.  He  read  the  tract  to  his  wife  and  little  boys, 
and  told  them  it  was  so  good  it  must  be  true. 
He  read  it  to  his  neighbors,  and  some  of  them 
also  accepted  its  teachings.  At  last  he  heard  of 
a  missionary  who  taught  similar  doctrines  some 
seventy  miles  away ;  he  went  on  foot  across  the 
then  roadless  country,  through  the  hills,  to  the 
town  where  the  missionary  was  said  to  live.  He 
found  him,  told  him  what  he  had  learned  from  the 


THE  FLEET-FOOTED   TRACT  87 

little  book,  and  asked  if  it  were  true  and  if  he  knew 
about  the  God  that  had  given  His  own  Son  to  save 
us  from  our  sins.  He  went  back  and  brought  his 
family  with  him  to  hear  more  of  this  wonderful 
news.  They  were  all  baptized  by  the  missionary, 
and  he  placed  his  children  in  the  mission  school, 
there  to  be  educated,  that  they  might  help  make 
known  these  glad  tidings  to  his  countrymen.  In 
1 86 1  I  buried  the  old  patriarch  in  a  Christian's 
grave.  He  was  a  man  of  strong  faith  and  much 
prayer;  he  spent  his  last  breath  in  sending  up 
shouts  of  praise  to  his  Saviour  for  sending  this 
tract  out  to  his  village  and  through  it  saving  him 
from  his  sins. 

Two  of  his  sons  have  since  been  laboring  under 
my  direction  as  preachers  of  the  same  gospel. 
The  elder  was  for  a  long  time  native  preacher  of 
the  church  at  Palmaner.  In  1884  I  stood  by  his 
bed  and  saw  him  pass  through  the  pearly  gates. 
So  much  respected  and  beloved  was  he  by  all  that 
at  his  funeral,  both  at  his  house  and  at  the  grave, 
there  was,  besides  the  Christian  congregation,  a 
large  concourse  of  heathen  and  Mohammedans 
present,  and  many  a  tear  dropped  into  his  grave 
with  the  flower  or  the  handful  of  earth  that  each 
one,  Hindu  as  well  as  Christian,  reverently  cast 
in.  After  the  funeral  a  prominent  Hindu  said  to 
me,  "  Sir,  he  was  a  man  who  never  ceased  to  tell 
others  of  his  Saviour.    When  he  was  sick  in  your 


88  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

hospital  one  of  my  family  was  also  a  patient  in  the 
same  ward,  and  I  was  there  a  great  deal.  Every 
day,  and  often  during  the  day,  he  would  gather 
groups  of  the  patients  and  their  friends  around 
him,  and  read  to  them  from  his  Bible,  and  talk  to 
them  of  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  His  will- 
ingness to  take  away  the  sins  of  all  who  would 
come  to  Him  and  ask.  Yes,  sir,  he  was  a  good 
man,  and  we  Hindus  too  mourn  over  his  loss." 

This  was  accomplished  by  that  one  tract  that 
found  its  way  all  alone  into  that  distant  Hindu 
village.  Thousands  of  Hindu  souls  in  glory  will 
point  back  to  the  leaflet  or  the  tract  that,  wafted 
or  borne  to  their  distant  homes,  first  told  them  of 
and  bade  them  seek  "  the  river  of  the  water  of 
hfe." 

These  are  some  of  the  channels  through  which 
the  "  gospel  river  in  India  "  is  flowing  and  being 
distributed,  in  tiny  rivulets,  to  thousands  of  sepa- 
rate and  scattered  villages ;  aye,  and  in  many  an 
unpromising  locality  are  already  found  germinat- 
ing seeds  and  growing  fruits,  that  give  promise 
of  developing  into  a  garden  of  the  Lord. 


VII 

ESTABLISHING  A   NEW   STATION!    VARIETIES 
IN   MISSION   WORK 

I  AM  often  asked,  "  How  do  you  proceed  in 
establishing  missionary  work  in  a  new  region? 
How  do  you  get  hold  of  the  people?  How 
do  you  first  introduce  Christianity  to  them? 
There  are  no  halls  to  be  hired  for  preaching 
in,  no  daily  papers  in  the  up-country  regions  in 
which  to  advertise  the  proclamation  of  a  new 
doctrine  at  a  given  place  and  hour.  The  whole 
mass  of  the  people  is  either  indifferent  or  hostile 
to  you.  How,  then,  do  you  gain  your  first  foot- 
hold and  start  the  missionary  machinery  working 
in  new  regions  ?  And  what  are  the  different  kinds 
of  missionary  activities  ?  " 

I  am  in  a  position  to  answer  these  questions,  for 

in  1863  I  was  chosen  to  go  on  into  new  regions 

and  open  out  work  among  the  Telugu  people,  the 

work  in  the  Arcot  Mission,  with  which  I  was  con- 

89 


90  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

nected,  having  thus  far  been  almost  entirely  con- 
fined to  the  Tamil  people,  adjoining  the  Telugu 
border  on  the  south. 

With  three  native  assistants,  a  catechist,  a 
reader,  and  a  school-teacher,  all  of  whom  knew 
Telugu,  which  I  also  was  able  to  use  freely,  we 
entered  our  "  new  diocese." 

As  Europeans  and  Americans  cannot  live  and 
keep  their  health  in  the  ill-ventilated  native  houses 
in  the  thickly  built  streets  of  the  India  towns,  even 
if  the  caste  Hindus  would  permit  them  so  to  live, 
and  as  none  of  the  very  few  European  houses 
built  for  the  government  officials  in  the  outskirts 
of  the  town  could  be  had,  it  was  necessary  for 
myself  and  family  to  live  in  a  tent  while  we  were 
erecting  a  small  house.  We  thus  lived  through 
the  hottest  months  of  the  year,  when  the  butter 
would  sometimes  turn  into  oil  upon  our  dining- 
table,  and  on  through  the  first  burst  of  the  early 
monsoon,  or  rainy  season,  when  from  the  torrents 
of  rain  the  earthen  floor  of  our  tent  became  so 
moist  that  our  chairs  would  sink  down  to  the 
rounds,  and  we  would  find  a  crop  of  green  mold 
grown  out  on  our  shoes  if  they  stood  unused  for 
a  day  or  two,  our  clothes  would  feel  damp  when 
we  put  them  on  in  the  morning,  and  all  was  reek- 
ing with  moisture  around  us.  When  two  rooms 
of  our  little  house  were  roofed  in  we  moved  into 
them,  as  preferable  to  a  tent  in  such  weather, 


ESTABLISHING  A  NEIV  STATION  91 

especially  for  our  little  children,  and  proceeded  to 
the  completion  of  the  house. 

As  soon  as  the  rain  was  over  we  put  up  a  little 
school-house  church  with  mud  walls  and  thatched 
with  rushes,  in  which  we  held  our  Sabbath  ser- 
vices for  the  very  few  native  Christians  who  had 
accompanied  us,  and  any  others  who  might  come 
in,  and  in  which  during  the  week  we  gathered  a 
few  children  from  the  town,  together  with  the 
children  of  our  native  assistants  and  servants,  and 
opened  a  day-school. 

Out  of  curiosity  a  number  of  the  non-Christian 
townspeople  would  come  to  our  Sunday  services 
in  the  little  church,  to  see  how  we  carried  on 
Christian  worship  and  to  hear  what  was  the  doc- 
trine which  we  believed  and  preached. 

Meantime  our  native  assistants  and  myself  had 
been  busily  engaged  in  preaching  each  morning 
or  evening  in  all  the  different  streets  of  the  town, 
and  in  the  fifty  villages  and  hamlets  within  four 
miles  of  our  house. 

For  this  village  preaching  we  would  start  early 
enough  in  the  morning  to  reach  the  village  in 
which  we  were  to  preach  a  little  before  sunrise,  so 
as  to  gather  an  audience  before  the  people  went 
to  their  work  for  the  day.  Walking  through  the 
main  streets  and  some  of  the  side  streets  of  the 
always  compactly  built  village,  we  would  select 
the  best  place  to  gather  an  audience,  and  mount- 


93  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

ing  a  pile  of  timber  or  heap  of  stones,  or  some 
partly  tumbled-down  wall,  or  some  cart  left  in  the 
street,  we  would  ring  our  bell  for  the  meeting  by- 
singing  a  Christian  lyric  to  one  of  their  beautiful 
Telugu  tunes.  The  Telugus,  as  I  have  indicated 
in  a  preceding  chapter,  are  exceedingly  fond  of 
music,  and  especially  of  their  old  weird  and  sweet 
tunes,  which  have  come  down  through  perhaps  a 
hundred  generations,  sung  by  them,  indeed,  to  the 
praises  of  their  gods,  but  melodious  and  cap- 
tivating and  well  suited  for  vehicles  for  God's 
message  of  love. 

Perhaps  we  would  npt  see  a  single  person  stir- 
ring when  we  began  to  sing,  but  in  the  still  morn- 
ing air  the  voice  of  song  would  enter  through  the 
barred  windows  and  through  the  cracks  under  or 
above  the  doors,  and  many  a  one,  hearing  the 
voice  of  singing,  would  spring  from  the  mat  on 
which  he  had  slept,  and  come  out,  with  the  blanket 
or  coarse  sheet  under  which  he  had  slept  wrapped 
around  him,  to  see  what  was  the  occasion  of  this 
early  music.  Seeing  a  party  of  strangers  with  a 
white  foreigner  standing  together  and  singing, 
they  would  often  come  forward  and  listen  as  they 
were,  while  others,  already  dressed,  would  one 
after  another  join  the  throng,  until  sometimes  we 
would  have  one  half  the  village  population  gath- 
ered around  us  by  sunrise,  one  third  of  whom  would 
be  wrapped  in  the  blankets  in  which  they  had  slept. 


ESTABLISHING  A  hlElV  STATION  93 

As  soon  as  a  good  audience  had  assembled  we 
would  cease  our  singing  and  read  a  portion  from 
the  Bible,  the  catechist  or  reader  would  explain 
the  passage  and  preach  to  them,  and  the  mission- 
ary would  follow,  presenting  God's  love  for  man 
and  the  scheme  of  salvation  through  Jesus  Christ 
more  fully  to  them.  At  the  conclusion  one-page 
leaflets,  containing  a  statement  of  Christian  truth, 
would  be  gratuitously  distributed,  and  Gospels  or 
tracts  of  larger  size  would  be  offered  them  for  a 
very  small  price,  much  less,  indeed,  than  their 
cost,  and  which  many  a  one  would  purchase  be- 
cause they  were  so  cheap,  and  because  they  had 
paid  money  for  them,  even  though  a  small  sum, 
would  keep  them  and  read  them. 

While  the  matter  of  our  message  was  the  same 
in  all  the  villages, — man  in  a  state  of  sin  and 
wretchedness,  and  God's  plan  for  saving  lost  man, 
— yet  the  manner  of  giving  the  message  would 
vary  according  to  the  degree  of  intelligence  of  the 
audience  assembled  to  hear  us.  If  it  were  an 
audience  of  ignorant  laborers,  we  would  in  the 
simplest  terms  tell  them  of  God  our  Father,  who 
"  so  loved  the  world,  that  He  gave  His  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  belleveth  in  Him 
might  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life,"  and 
in  simplest  terms  tell  them  how  they  could  avail 
themselves  of  that  love  and  find  that  salvation. 

If  it  were  a  village  of  more  cultivated  people. 


94  IN  THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

especially  where  there  were  a  good  number  of 
Brahmans,  we  would  use  higher  illustrations  and 
more  ornate  language,  but  still  give  the  same 
message  :  man  in  sin,  not  at  peace  with  holy  God, 
man's  utterly  hopeless  state,  and  God's  way  o/ 
giving  life  eternal,  with  quotations  from  their 
poets  and  their  Vedas  in  illustration  of  the  truth 
that  we  presented  to  them.  Such  villages  we 
would  more  often  visit  in  the  evening,  so  that 
there  might  be  more  time  for  conversation  or  dis- 
cussion. We  would  commence  our  services  a  Httle 
before  sundown,  but  it  would  often  be  late  at 
night  before  we  would  reach  our  home. 

Our  preaching  in  the  different  streets  of  the 
town  was  the  same  in  character,  varying  in  our 
manner  of  presentation  with  the  varying  culture 
of  the  audiences  before  whom  we  spoke,  whether 
in  the  farmers'  or  the  artisans'  or  the  merchants' 
or  the  Brahmans'  street. 

Sometimes  we  would  meet  with  the  most 
courteous  reception,  and  our  message  would  be 
listened  to  with  kindly  attention,  and  the  ques- 
tions asked  at  the  conclusion  of  the  preaching 
would  be  with  the  design  of  further  elucidating 
the  bearing  of  the  truths  which  we  had  presented 
before  them ;  sometimes  we  would  be  met  by 
stolid  indifference  or  by  contemptuous  sneers ; 
and  sometimes  we  would  encounter  angry  oppo- 
sition, and  a  sharp  and  long-continued  discussion 


ESTABLISHING  A  NEIV  STATION  95 

would  ensue.  It  is  then  that  the  missionary  feels 
the  necessity  of  claiming  the  fulfilment  of  the 
promise,  "  I  will  be  with  thy  mouth,  and  teach 
thee  what  thou  shalt  say."  And  God  fulfils  it 
often  in  a  wonderful  way. 

This  oral  proclamation  of  the  gospel,  of  God's 
way  of  life,  in  the  vernaculars  of  the  people,  to  the 
high  and  the  low,  the  learned  and  the  ignorant,  is 
the  chief  weapon  made  use  of  in  the  Arcot  Mis- 
sion ;  for  the  potency  of  such  proclamation  of 
the  gospel,  backed  by  the  printed  Word  freely 
distributed,  is  with  us  a  fundamental  doctrine. 

To  obtain  more  of  a  hold  on  the  higher  classes, 
it  has  been  the  custom  of  many  missions  to  estab- 
lish, from  the  incipiency  of  a  mission,  Anglo- 
vernacular  schools  of  a  higher  grade,  in  which 
instruction  is  given  in  all  the  usual  secular  sub- 
jects, but  with  a  daily  Bible  lesson,  studied  by  all 
the  classes  and  expounded  by  Christian  teachers. 
In  our  mission,  however,  such  schools  have  fol- 
lowed the  accession  of  numbers  as  a  necessity  for 
the  education  of  our  own  young  people,  and  to 
them  non-Christians  are  admitted  and  pursue  the 
biblical  studies  with  the  Christian  students.  Such 
schools  have  been  productive  of  blessed  results. 

After  the  mission  has  gained  a  foothold  in  a 
region  and  more  of  the  young  men  are  being 
educated,  a  desire  begins  to  spring  up  that  the 
girls  too  should  have  a  chance  to  learn.    Prompt- 


96  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

ing  and  fostering  this  desire,  we  can  then  open 
schools  for  the  high-caste  Hindu  girls,  and,  visit- 
ing them  in  their  homes,  we  can  open  out  zenana 
work  for  educating  their  older  sisters  who  cannot 
come  out  to  a  school,  and  often  their  mothers  also 
and  aunts  will  join  those  little  classes.  Our  Bible 
women,  too,  begin  to  find  access  to  many  houses, 
and  the  missionary  ladies  find  their  hands  more 
than  full  in  following  out  these  most  promising 
openings.  Such  work,  however,  cannot  find  an 
entrance  usually  on  the  first  opening  of  work  in  a 
new  region. 

In  the  Arcot  Mission  the  medical  missionary 
work  has  the  rather  been  our  adjuvant  in  gaining 
the  confidence  and  affections  of  the  people.  When 
that  agency  is  employed  it  is  essential  that  two 
missionaries  should  be  associated  in  opening  the 
work  in  a  new  region ;  the  one  to  give  his  almost 
exclusive  attention  to  direct  evangelistic  work  at 
headquarters  and  in  all  the  surrounding  region, 
the  other  being  at  liberty  to  devote  himself  mainly 
to  his  hospital  and  medical  work,  always,  however, 
coupling  with  that  work  the  daily  proclamation  of 
the  gospel  to  the  multitudes  that  flock  together 
to  receive  from  him  medical  or  surgical  aid. 

As  I  went  alone  into  this  new  region  in  the 
Telugu  country,  it  was  designed  that  I  should 
give  my  exclusive  attention  to  evangelistic  work ; 
and  this  I  did  for  the  first  few  months,  expect- 


ESTABLISHING  A  NEW  STATION  97 

ing  so  to  continue  until  joined  by  another  mis- 
sionary. 

But  God  ordered  otherwise.  Scarcely  were 
we  settled  in  our  new  temporary  house  when  the 
annual  drawing  of  the  idol-car  in  the  town 
occurred.  At  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  as  with 
torch-light  procession  the  car  was  being  drawn 
by  the  multitude,  it  became  set;  the  ropes 
snapped,  but  it  could  not  be  moved. 

"  The  gods  are  angry !  The  gods  are  angry ! " 
shouted  the  priests.  "  Run  and  bring  cocoanuts 
to  break  over  the  wheels  and  propitiate  the  gods, 
or  we  are  lost." 

Off  ran  the  people  to  get  cocoanuts  for  the 
libation.  They  were  broken  on  the  big  wooden 
wheels,  and  the  milk  ran  down  freely.  A  well- 
to-do  high-caste  farmer  had  brought  his.  In 
striking  one  on  the  wheel  to  break  it,  it  had 
slipped  and  fallen  on  the  ground  inside  the  wheel ; 
he  reached  his  hand  in  under  the  front  of  the  wheel 
to  get  the  cocoanut ;  the  people  were  straining  at 
the  mended  ropes ;  just  then  the  "  gods  became 
propitious,"  the  car  moved  forward  with  a  lurch, 
and  passed  over  the  hand  and  forearm  of  the 
farmer  reaching  for  his  cocoanut,  breaking  the 
bones  and  mangling  the  flesh. 

From  my  treatment  of  some  of  the  workmen 
who  had  met  with  accidents  in  the  building  of  my 
house  or  were  taken  with  cholera,  the  people  had 


98  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

come  to  know  that  I  was  a  doctor.  His  friends 
carried  the  wounded  man  to  his  house  in  the  main 
farmers'  street  of  the  town,  and  ran  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  to  my  house  to  waken  me  and  ask  me  to 
come  and  save  the  man's  Hfe  and  if  possible  his 
arm  and  hand,  the  right  hand.  Taking  restora- 
tives and  necessary  appliances,  I  hastened  to  his 
house  to  find  them  singing  the  death-wail  over 
him.  From  nervous  shock  and  loss  of  blood  he 
had  fainted,  and  they  supposed  him  to  be  dead. 
The  Lord  gave  me  that  man's  life.  How  I  worked 
over  the  case !  There  were  ten  bone  fractures, 
besides  the  mangling  of  muscles,  sinews,  nerves, 
and  blood-vessels.  How  our  few  Christians 
prayed!  The  man  recovered  and  regained  the 
use  of  even  that  hand,  his  plow-hand. 

He  was  a  member  of  a  large  and  influential 
family  connection  of  landed  farmers.  Not  one 
of  that  family  ever  joined  in  those  idol-car  obser- 
vances again.  Few  Sabbaths  passed  that  some 
of  them  were  not  seen  in  our  Christian  service. 
None  of  them  openly  embraced  Christianity,  but 
from  that  day  they  were  all  the  Christians'  friends 
and  defenders,  and  a  few  years  later  one  of  them, 
though  not  baptized,  died  calling  on  the  Lord 
Jesus. 

From  that  time  I  could  not  prevent  the  people 
coming  to  me  for  treatment,  especially  in  surgical 
cases,  where  their  old-time  native  doctors  were 


ESTABLISHING  A  NEW  STATION  99 

utterly  powerless.  Little  by  little  was  I  led  to 
enlarge  that  department  of  my  work,  until,  single- 
handed  and  with  only  such  assistants  as  I  had 
trained  by  daily  practice,  I  often  had  more  than 
one  hundred  patients  in  a  day  in  my  little  mud- 
walled  and  thatched-roof  dispensary. 

This  medical  work  had  thus  far  been  generously 
supported  by  our  English  friends,  mostly  govern- 
ment officials,  whom  and  whose  families  I  was 
often  called  to  treat,  as  there  was  at  that  time  no 
other  surgeon  or  physician  within  seventy-five 
miles. 

Now,  however,  it  became  necessary  to  put  this 
work  upon  a  better  footing.  Government  aid  was 
tendered,  proper  buildings  were  erected,  and  in 
1869  a  well-appointed  hospital,  as  well  as  dis- 
pensary, with  qualified  assistants,  was  organized 
and  placed  upon  a  permanent  footing,  with  the 
medical  missionary  as  its  superintendent. 

But  this  distinctively  medical  work,  or  rather 
medico-evangelistic  work,  which  Providence 
thrust  upon  me,  and  to  which  I  was  led  to  give 
so  much  of  my  time  and  strength  for  many  years, 
cannot  be  detailed  in  this  volume,  for  its  magnifi- 
cent opportunities  and  its  blessed  fruits  would 
alone  require  a  volume  for  their  presentation. 


VIII 

GOSPEL   PREACHING  TOURS 

When  our  house  was  completed  and  our  tents 
were  at  liberty  we  commenced  systematic  gospel 
preaching  tours  through  all  the  villages  of  our 
"  new  diocese," 

We  would  take  our  tents,  with  a  good  supply 
of  Gospels  and  tracts  and  some  New  Testaments 
and  Bibles,  chiefly  in  Telugu,  but  with  always  a 
few  in  Hindustani,  Kanarese,  and  Tamil,  in  case 
we  should  meet  any  who  knew  only  one  of  those 
languages,  and  go  out  for  a  tour  of  several  weeks. 

Our  first  camp  we  would  make  some  seven  or 
eight  miles  from  our  station  in  one  direction  or 
another,  and  pitching  our  tents  in  a  shady  grove 
near  some  central  village,  we  would  preach  in 
each  of  the  villages  within  a  radius  of  four  miles 
of  the  tents;  and  then,  moving  our  tents  eight 
miles  farther  on,  preach  in  all  the  villages  within 
a  similar  circuit,  and  then  move  again,  so  con- 
tinuing the  process  as  long  as  we  were  able  to  be 
out. 

100 


GOSPEL  PREACHING   TOURS  101 

Each  morning  while  on  these  tours  we  would 
preach  in  three  or  four  or  more  villages,  and  each 
evening  in  two  or  three.  Leaving  our  tents  at  or 
before  the  first  break  of  day,  so  as  to  catch  the 
people  before  they  should  go  out  to  their  fields 
for  their  day's  work,  we  would  go  first  to  the 
farthest  village  in  which  we  expected  to  preach 
that  day.  Reaching  that  village  usually  before 
sunrise,  before  the  people  were  astir,  we  would 
gather  them  together  by  the  voice  of  song  as  we 
stood  in  the  street;  or,  if  very  early,  marching 
through  the  streets  singing  to  awake  the  slum- 
berers,  we  would  soon  find  ourselves  surrounded 
by  an  audience  of  curious  listeners.  ,,. 

Presenting  the  truth  to  them  in  the  way  Indi- 
cated in  the  last  chapter,  we  would  give  out  a  few 
single-page  leaflets,  printed  on  paper  of  bright 
colors,  of  which  the  Hindus  are  very  fond,  and 
offer  Scriptures,  Gospels,  and  tracts  on  sale  at  a 
very  small  price.  Bidding  them  good-by  and 
inviting  them  to  come  and  see  us  at  our  tent,  or 
at  our  station  whenever  they  should  come  to  the 
periodical  fair,  to  learn  more  about  this  divine  way 
of  life,  we  would  make  our  way  to  the  next  village 
on  our  way  back  to  our  tent. 

There  the  people  had  already  arisen;  the 
weavers  would  be  getting  their  looms  ready  for 
their  day's  work,  the  farmers  would  be  yoking 
their  oxen  to  go  to  the  fields,  the  carpenters  sharp- 


102  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

ening  their  tools  for  their  day's  work,  and  the 
blacksmiths  starting  the  fire  in  their  forges  j  but 
at  the  voice  of  the  singing  they  would  come  to- 
gether to  listen  to  what  these  strangers  had  to  say. 

When  we  came  to  the  next  village  we  would 
find  many  of  the  people  already  at  their  work, 
and  those  who  tilled  the  farther  fields  would  be 
beyond  our  reach,  and  our  audience  would  con- 
sist more  of  children  ;  and  the  women,  standing  in 
their  back  yards  peering  over  the  walls,  would 
listen  to  our  clearly  spoken  message,  while  the  old 
men  and  those  who  had  not  yet  gone  to  their 
work  would  form  no  small  part  of  the  audience. 

At  a  later  hour,  when  the  sun  was  too  hot  to 
allow  of  our  gathering  an  audience  or  ourselves 
preaching  in  the  open  streets,  we  would  often  find 
a  group  gathered  on  the  platform  under  the  village 
council-tree.  Such  a  tree  is  found  at  the  entrance 
of  very  many  of  the  Hindu  villages,  large  or  small. 
This  council-tree  is  usually  a  banyan-tree,  though 
sometimes  a  margosa  or  a  mango  or  some  other 
tree,  and  under  it  is  a  platform  of  stones  or  of  sun- 
dried  bricks,  covered  over  with  slabs  of  granite, 
raised  some  two  feet  or  more  above  the  level  of 
the  street,  where  the  "  elders  "  of  the  village  meet 
to  discuss  affairs  and  settle  disputes  and  adminis- 
ter rural  justice.  The  platform  is  from  twelve  to 
twenty  feet  square,  giving  room  for  a  good  num- 
ber of  the  better  class  to  be  seated,  Hindu  fashion, 


GOSPEL  PREACHING   TOURS  103 

cross-legged  like  a  tailor,  while  others  stand 
around  or  sit  on  their  heels  in  the  street,  as  we, 
seated  on  one  edge  of  the  platform,  are  preaching 
to  them.  If  we  wish  to  retain  our  audience  we 
must  ourselves  sit  down,  for  it  is  not  polite  for 
those  being  instructed  to  be  seated  while  their 
teachers  or  preachers  stand. 

If  there  is  no  village  council-tree,  there  will 
usually  be  found  in  the  main  street  a  council-shed, 
or  chdvadi,  the  whole  side  toward  the  street  being 
open,  and  that  is  a  favorite  place  for  us  to  gather 
our  audience  and  preach  when  the  sun  is  too  hot 
for  us  to  stand  in  the  street. 

We  usually  return  to  our  tents  by  about  nine 
o'clock;  at  some  seasons  of  the  year,  however, 
when  there  is  little  work  in  the  fields,  we  can 
gather  an  audience  until  a  later  hour.  I  have 
myself,  accompanied  by  one  native  preacher, 
starting  before  daylight  from  the  tent,  made  a 
circuit  of  eleven  miles  on  foot,  preaching  in  seven 
villages  or  hamlets  ere  returning  to  my  breakfast 
at  my  tent  at  eleven  o'clock,  and  then,  the  even- 
ing being  moonlight,  we  preached  in  four  more, 
making  eleven  villages  or  hamlets  in  which  we  two 
had  given  the  divine  message  in  that  one  day ;  and 
it  was  the  first  time  that  any  of  these  people  had 
heard  the  name  of  Jesus.  We  usually  went  two 
and  two  to  the  villages,  the  senior  catechist  tak- 
ing the  junior  assistant,  and  another  assistant  ac- 


104  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

company ing  me.      We  always  kept  an  accurat 
record  of  the  villages  in  which  we  preached,  the 
number  of  persons  who  listened  to  us  in  each 
village,  male  and  female,  and  the  number  of  books 
or  tracts  sold  or  given  away. 

From  each  center  where  we  pitched  our  tent 
we  would  reach  thirty  or  fifty  or  seventy  villages, 
according  to  the  density  of  the  population,  before 
we  moved  our  tent  to  the  next  center.  Some- 
times we  would  find  even  more  villages  than  this. 
I  remember  pitching  our  tent  in  a  plain  between 
the  hills  in  1868,  where,  by  extending  our  radius 
to  five  miles,  five  of  us  reached  one  hundred  and 
sixty  villages  in  eighteen  days  before  we  moved 
our  tents. 

In  one  year  myself  and  three  native  assistants 
had  thus  preached  in  ten  hundred  and  sixty-one 
different  towns,  villages,  or  hamlets,  our  audiences 
aggregating  twenty  thousand  and  twelve,  as  we 
found  on  going  over  our  records  on  the  31st  of 
December.  We  had  preached  in  many  of  the 
towns  from  two  to  six  times  each,  but  at  least 
once  had  the  gospel  been  proclaimed  that  year  in 
more  than  one  thousand  villages,  and  this  had 
covered  not  more  than  one  third  of  the  circuit, 
with  a  radius  of  sixteen  miles,  around  our  station. 

This  shows  the  density  of  the  population,  and 
indicates  how  even  the  agricultural  population  is 
all  gathered  in  villages ;  for  none  of  the  farmers 


GOSPEL   PREACHING    TOURS  105 

live  out  upon  the  land  which  they  cultivate. 
Their  flocks  and  herds  also  are  during  most  of  the 
year,  for  safety's  sake,  brought  into  the  village 
folds  or  stables  over  the  night.  The  people  all 
thus  dwelling  in  villages  gives  us  a  far  better 
chance  to  reach  them  than  though  they  were 
scattered  all  over  the  country  as  in  America. 
The  hamlets  are  often  quite  small,  having  perhaps 
not  more  than  fifty  inhabitants  in  some,  while 
many  villages  of  farmers  will  number  a  thousand 
people,  and  a  number  of  villages  in  each  taluk, 
or  county,  will  number  from  three  thousand  to 
five  or  even  ten  thousand  people.  To  every  one 
of  these  hamlets,  villages,  or  towns  do  we  en- 
deavor, on  our  tours,  to  carry  the  ofiFer  of  eternal 
life  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 


IX 

GOSPEL   PREACHING   AT   HINDU    FAIRS 

Besides  these  systematic  gospel  preaching 
tours  in  the  villages  spoken  of  in  the  last  chapter, 
we  endeavor  to  reach  as  many  periodical  fairs  and 
markets  as  we  can  without  neglecting  other  work. 

Every  taluk  has  a  weekly  market  at  two  or 
more  different  centers.  At  each  one  of  these 
weekly  markets  or  fairs  people  from  fifty  to 
one  hundred  villages  will  gather;  the  farmers 
bringing  in  their  crops,  the  weavers  their  cloth, 
the  fruit-raisers  their  fruit,  the  gold-  and  silver- 
smiths their  workmanship,  the  spice  merchants 
their  spices  from  distant  centers,  and  householders 
from  several  hundred  families  come  together  to 
buy  their  supplies. 

The  roads  and  the  foot-paths  across  the  fields 
leading  toward  the  market-places  will  be  alive 
with  travelers  from  morning  until  ten  o'clock  or 
noon.  This  weekly  market  is  often  held  in  some 
large  grove.  Hundreds  of  little  tents  will  be 
pitched,  under  which  the  more  expensive  wares 

lOG 


GOSPEL  PREACHING  AT  HINDU  FAIRS     107 

will  be  exhibited,  while  the  shade  of  the  trees  is 
sufficient  for  the  multitude  of  those  who  have  less 
costly  wares,  or  vegetables  and  fruits.  From  noon 
until  3  P.M.  the  fair  is  in  full  blast,  and  continues, 
with  slowly  lessening  crowds,  until  four  to  six 
o'clock,  when  all  the  people  will  have  departed  for 
their  homes. 

To  visit  these  markets  we  have  to  be  out  in  the 
heat  of  the  day ;  but  the  opportunity  is  so  good 
to  gather  large  audiences  of  those  who  have  come 
from  fifty  or  more  villages,  and  perchance  send 
by  them  a  little  seed  of  truth  out  to  many  of 
these  distant  places,  that  we  brave  the  sun  and 
give  our  day  to  the  one  market  with  its  half-score 
or  more  of  successive  audiences.  We  keep  a  list 
of  all  these  weekly  or  monthly  fairs  in  each  of  the 
taluks  in  which  we  work,  with  the  dates  on  which 
they  are  successively  held,  so  that  whenever  we 
are  in  a  county  we  may  attend  any  of  the  fairs 
within  reach  of  the  place  where  we  are  encamped. 

At  some  of  these  fairs  we  find  the  people  too 
much  engrossed  in  business  to  give  us  much 
attention ;  still,  by  mounting  a  platform  under 
some  tree  a  little  way  from  the  busy  bustle  of  the 
fair,  we  can  always  secure  an  audience  more  or 
less  attentive,  and  who  will  stop  a  longer  or  shorter 
time  to  hear  what  these  preachers  say.  At  other 
times  so  many  of  the  people  attending  the  fair 
will  leave  their  business  and  come  to  our  preach- 


108  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

ing  places,  and  listen  so  attentively  and  so  long, 
as  to  interfere  decidedly  with  the  business  of  the 
fair. 

I  well  remember  going  out  to  such  a  weekly 
fair  many  years  ago,  in  the  northwest  corner  of 
my  field.  It  was  the  first  time  that  the  gospel 
had  been  carried  there.  Reaching  the  market- 
grove  with  my  two  native  assistants  by  two  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  we  took  our  stand  under  a  tree 
on  a  little  rising  ground  adjacent  to  a  low,  flat- 
roofed  temple,  which  some  devotee  had  erected 
many  years  ago  at  this  grove  in  fulfilment  of  a 
vow. 

We  sang  our  songs  of  Zion ;  a  large  crowd 
surrounded  us.  One  of  us  preached  and  then 
another.  The  crowd  increased  until  not  one  half 
of  those  who  had  come  together  to  hear  us  could 
see  or  hear  the  preacher. 

One  of  the  interested  hearers,  who  was  of  short 
stature  and  too  far  away  to  hear  distinctly  where 
he  could  not  see  the  speaker's  face,  pressed 
through  the  crowd  and  made  a  singular  sugges- 
tion ;  it  was  that  the  missionary  should  mount 
upon  the  flat  roof  of  the  temple  and  speak  from 
there,  saying  that  then  all  the  people  at  the  fair 
could  both  see  and  hear.  A  murmur  of  assent 
through  the  crowd  witnessed  their  approval  of  the 
proposition.  By  their  aid  the  temple  was  mounted. 
The  hum  of  the  market  ceased,  because  the  buy- 


GOSPEL  PRE/ICHING  AT  HINDU  FAIRS     1U9 

ers  and  the  venders  had  nearly  all  of  them  come 
forward  to  listen.  The  Hindu  merry-go-round 
had  ceased  its  circumvolutions,  because  the  riders 
of  the  vs^ooden  horses  and  the  people  who  man- 
aged it  had  all  joined  the  expectant  crowd.  The 
Hindu  jugglers  under  an  adjacent  tree  had  put 
their  paraphernalia  in  their  sacks,  for  no  one  would 
watch  their  performance  now.  The  snake-charm- 
ers adjacent  had  covered  their  serpents  in  their 
little  flat  baskets  and,  tying  the  covers  on,  had 
mingled  in  the  audience.  The  mittai  venders,  or 
sweetmeat  merchants,  alone  remained  at  their 
stalls,  as  the  luscious  sweetmeats  were  too  great 
a  temptation  to  the  crowd  of  boys  around ;  but 
the  cloth  merchants  and  the  grain  merchants  and 
the  iron  merchants  had  left  their  wares  without 
any  one  to  guard  them,  or  at  least  but  one  to 
several  stalls,  while  all  the  others  pressed  toward 
the  temple. 

In  the  hush  that  followed  and  with  the  clear- 
sounding  Telugu  language,  the  voice  of  the  mis- 
sionary could  be  heard  by  all  the  assembled 
multitude,  and  he  could  see  every  person  in  the 
crowd  as  he  stood  ten  feet  above  their  heads.  I 
was  never  more  impressed  by  any  audience  to 
whom  I  have  ever  spoken  than  by  those  multi- 
tudes, who  had  deserted  their  stalls  and  their 
traffic  and  pressed  forward  in  eager  silence  to 
listen,  for  the  first  time,  to  that  wondrous  message. 


110  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

"  Brothers,"  said  the  missionary,  "  I  have  come 
from  far  to  tell  you  the  best  news  that  was  ever 
heard  by  mortal  ears.  I  will  tell  it  to  you  now, 
and  when  I  have  done  I  will  gladly  answer  any 
questions  which  you  may  put  to  me  about  this 
wonderful  message. 

"  Brothers,  there  is  but  one  true  God.  He 
created,  preserves,  and  controls  all  things.  We 
intelligent  men  could  not  look  up  to  a  God  whom 
we  did  not  acknowledge  to  be  superior  to  our- 
selves in  every  way.  He  must  be  wiser,  stronger, 
holier  than  we,  or  we  could  not  reverence  Him. 
This  true  God,  that  made  all  worlds,  is  omnipo- 
tent, omniscient,  and  omnipresent;  He  sees  all 
things ;  He  sees  us  here  and  now.  That  God  is 
holy.  He  is  without  sin ;  but  we  are  filled  with 
sin ;  there  is  not  a  man  among  us  who  dare  stand 
forth  and  say,  *  I  am  without  sin,'  So  long  as  we 
are  polluted  with  sin  and  God  is  holy  there  can 
be  no  peace,  no  communion  between  us  sinful  men 
and  holy  God.  This  your  own  poets  and  sages 
freely^  admit  and  teach.  Does  not  your  own 
Telugu  poet,  Vemana,  say : 

'  The  soul  defiled  with  sin,  what  real  worship  pays  it? 
The  pot  unclean,  the  cookery,  who  eats  it? 
The  heart  impure,  though  it  essays  devotion, 
Can  Deity  receive  it?     Nay,  nay.     Be  pure,  O  man.* 

"  Will  desert  fastings,  or  pilgrimages  to  shrines, 
or  bathing  in  the  holy  Ganges,  or  physical  tortures 


GOSPEL  PREACHING  AT  HINDU  FAIRS     111 

make  us  at  peace  with  God  ?     Does  not  Vemana 
say : 

'  'Tis  not  by  roaming  deserts  wild,  nor  gazing  at  the  sky ; 
'Tis  not  by  bathing  in  the  stream,  nor  pilgrimage  to  shrine ; 
But  thine  own  heart  must  thou  make  pure,  and  then,  and 

then  alone, 
Shalt  thou  see  Him  no  eye  hath  kenned,  shall  thou  behold 

thy  King.' 

"  We  cannot  ourselves  by  our  own  effort  attain 
this  purity  of  heart  and  atone  for  the  sins  that  we 
have  committed.  My  Brahman  brothers,  whom 
I  see  standing  before  me  here,  do  you  not  in  your 
evening  ablutions  at  the  river  chant  this  Sanskrit 
sloka  ? 

'  Pdp6ham,  papa  karmaham,  pdpdtma,  papasambhavaha, 
Trahi  m&pi,  Krupayd  D^va,  sharana  gata  vatsala.  * 

"  Does  not  that  mean,  '  I  am  a  sinner ;  my 
actions  are  sinful,  my  soul  is  sinful ;  all  that  per- 
tains to  me  is  polluted  with  sin.  Do  Thou,  O 
God,  that  hast  mercy  on  those  who  seek  Thy 
refuge,  do  Thou  take  away  my  sin.'  You  thus 
roll  it  back  upon  God,  yourselves  not  knowing 
how  it  can  be  done. 

"  Brothers,  there  is  a  way  by  which  we  can  get 
rid  of  this  burden  of  sin  and  of  all  sin's  conse- 
quences. It  is  to  tell  you  how  that  can  be  done 
that  I  have  come  here.  My  ancestors,  in  the 
far-away  land,  used  to  worship  idols  and  wander 


112  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

in  darkness  as  you  do  now.  Men  who  had  learned 
of  the  true  God  and  of  His  way  of  expiating  sin 
came  and  told  my  ancestors  all  about  it;  they 
accepted  the  new  way ;  they  found  pardon,  peace, 
and  joy ;  and  my  people  have  sent  me  here  to  tell 
you  how  you  too  may  find  it. 

"  God,  our  Father,  is  a  God  of  love.  He  '  so 
loved  the  world,  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  might  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.'  He  sent  His 
Son  into  this  world  to  take  upon  Himself  our 
natures,  to  become  man  like  us,  to  show  us  the 
way  of  life,  and  to  expiate  our  sins.  That  Son 
of  God,  Jesus  Christ,  was  born  into  this  world,  of 
a  virgin,  as  an  infant.  It  was  not  in  the  land  where 
we  English-speaking  people  dwell  that  He  was 
born.  Midway  between  this  your  land  and  the 
land  of  the  English  there  is  another  country, 
Judea,  a  part  of  your  Asia.  He  was  born  there, 
not  as  a  white  man  wearing  European  clothes  and 
speaking  the  English  language ;  nay.  He  was  born 
more  Hke  yourselves,  more  of  your  complexion, 
wearing  Oriental  clothing  like  yourselves,  the  son 
of  Oriental  parents,  living  amid  Oriental  surround- 
ings. We  of  the  far  West,  though  so  different, 
have  accepted  Him  as  our  Saviour,  for  He  is 
the  Saviour  of  the  whole  world,  and  we  bring 
Him  to  you  of  the  farther  Orient  as  your  divine 
Redeemer." 


GOSPEL   PREACHING  AT  HINDU  FAIRS      113 

The  missionary  then  told  them  of  the  birth  in 
the  manger  of  Bethlehem,  when  the  wise  men  of 
the  East  brought  their  gifts ;  of  His  spotless  life ; 
His  marvelous  works  of  heahng  and  mercy ;  His 
parables  and  His  teachings ;  His  sacrificial  death, 
when  He  atoned  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world 
if  they  would  beHeve  in  Him;  of  His  burial,  His 
resurrection,  His  ascent  to  the  right  hand  of  God ; 
His  mediatorial  reign  there  for  us ;  and  told  them 
all  that  they  needed  to  do  was  to  be  sorry  for  and 
repent  of  and  forsake  their  sins,  and  come  in  faith 
to  Jesus  Christ,  and  say  to  Him  in  prayer,  "  O 
Jesus  Christ,  I  am  a  sinner;  I  cannot  get  rid  of 
my  sin.  Thou  canst  take  it  away ;  do  Thou  take 
away  all  my  sin  and  make  me  Thy  disciple,  and 
when  I  die  take  me  to  dwell  with  Thee;"  that 
if  they  would  do  this  sincerely  and  follow  that 
Jesus  lovingly,  He  would  do  all  the  rest;  that 
this  was  the  message  that  we  had  come  from  far 
to  bring  to  them. 

For  nearly  half  an  hour  that  whole  audience 
had  listened  with  the  closest  attention,  and  when 
the  missionary  ceased  speaking,  earnest  questions 
were  asked  by  the  eager  hsteners,  answers  to 
which  kept  the  audience  still  lingering  from  their 
trade ;  and  when  the  missionary,  climbing  down 
from  the  temple  roof,  and  his  assistants  offered 
for  sale  the  "  Life  of  the  Divine  Redeemer,"  as  the 
Gospels  are  called,  with  tracts  that  explained  the 


114  IN  THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

way  of  salvation  more  fully,  from  many  a  wallet 
money  that  had  been  brought  to  purchase  other 
things  was  spent  to  buy  the  printed  message  to 
carry  to  their  distant  homes,  to  be  read  by  their 
families,  their  neighbors,  and  their  friends. 

It  is  not  always,  by  any  means,  that  we  are 
listened  to  with  this  eagerness.  Often  there  are 
angry  interruptions  made  by  priests  who  have 
perchance  come  to  the  fair;  sometimes  there  are 
discussions  which  continue  for  an  hour  or  longer, 
listened  to  by  from  one  to  five  hundred  intently 
to  their  close.  We  do  not  court  these  discussions 
in  public,  as  angry  passions  are  likely  to  be 
aroused,  and  an  angry  man  is  rarely  ever  con- 
vinced of  the  truth  presented  by  his  opponent. 
But  we  do  not  shun  them  when  brought  upon  us, 
for  the  attention  of  the  listeners  is  by  them 
sharply  drawn  to  the  difference  between  God's 
plan  of  salvation  and  the  best  heathen  system. 
And  the  seed  dropped  is  likely  to  be  carried 
to  many  scattered  villages  by  those  who  have 
listened  without  an  angry  spirit  of  opposition. 


^.:' 


TREATED   WITH   A   SHOWER   OF   STONES 

The  rapt  attention  on  the  first  presentation  of 
the  gospel  message  on  the  part  of  a  Hindu 
audience,  such  as  detailed  in  the  last  chapter,  is 
not  by  any  means  the  rule  in  our  preaching  in  the 
fairs  and  the  streets.  A  marked  case  of  the  op- 
posite kind  comes  vividly  to  my  mind,  and  my 
notes  made  at  the  time  furnish  further  details. 

While  on  a  tour  in  the  northeastern  corner  of 
the  Mysore  kingdom,  which  extends  to  within  ten 
miles  of  Madanapalle,  Catechist  John  Hill  and 
myself  had  gone  from  our  camp  into  a  densely 
populated  town.  At  the  cross-streets  in  front  of 
the  village  chavadi,  or  council-house,  we  had 
taken  our  stand,  and  ere  long  were  surrounded 
by  a  goodly  number  of  people,  many  of  whom 
were  Brahmans.  They  listened  to  our  singing, 
to  our  reading  from  the  Scriptures,  with  scowls 
and  evident  hostility,  but  did  not  enter  into  argu- 
ment. When  we  had  finished  we  offered  them 
the  leaflets,  tracts,  and  Gospels  as  a  gift,  but  they 
115 


116  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

would  have  none  of  them.  We  could  get  no 
kindly  response  to  anything  that  we  said.  We 
turned  to  go  back  to  our  tent. 

As  we  passed  slowly  down  the  street  a  hooting 
began  behind  us,  and  soon  small  stones,  pellets  of 
earth,  and  other  missiles  began  to  shower  upon 
us.  One  stone  the  size  of  an  egg  struck  me  on 
the  head,  but  my  pith  hat  prevented  its  doing 
harm.  Turning  to  the  catechist  who  accom- 
panied me,  I  said,  "  We  must  go  back  and  meet 
these  people.  It  will  not  do  to  let  them  think 
that  we  are  driven  away  from  our  work." 

Turning  around,  we  both  walked  steadily  back 
toward  the  hooting  and  missile-throwing  crowd. 
Seeing  our  quiet  mien  and  fearlessness,  the  crowd 
gave  way.  Walking  directly  up  to  the  group  of 
Brahmans  in  front  of  the  chavadi,  to  whom  we 
had  been  chiefly  preaching,  and  who,  we  believed, 
were  the  instigators  of  this  attack,  I  said  to  them : 

"  Brothers,  if  you  wish  to  stone  us,  you  may 
stone  us  to  our  face.  We  have  come  back  to  you 
so  that  you  can  hit  us  every  time.  But  first  we 
would  like  to  know  why  it  is  that  you  stone 
us.  Is  it  because  we,  leaving  our  country,  have 
come  at  our  own  expense  to  tell  you  of  what  we 
consider  the  best  news  ever  revealed  to  man  ?  Is 
it  because  we  have  told  you  that  the  God  wlio 
made  us  all  so  loved  the  world  that  He  sent  His 
only  begotten  Son  to  suffer  and  die  for  us,  that  a 


TREATED  IVITH  A  SHOWER  OF  STONES    117 

way  might  be  opened  for  the  pardon  of  our  sins  ? 
Is  it  because  we  have  told  you  that  the  Son  of 
God  came  to  this  world,  and  took  upon  Himself 
our  nature,  and  became  man  in  order  that  He 
might  understand  all  our  weaknesses  and  temp- 
tations and  become  to  us  a  sympathizing  High 
Priest?  Is  it  because  we  have  told  you  the 
divine  words  of  instruction  and  comfort  which 
He  spoke  to  those  about  Him  and  left  on  record 
for  you  and  us?  " 

The  whole  crowd  had  by  this  time  pressed  for- 
ward to  listen  to  what  we  were  quietly  saying 
to  the  Brahman  priests.  The  priests  themselves 
seemed  to  feel  ashamed  of  what  had  been  done 
and  were  now  ready  to  listen.  Point  by  point, 
asking  them  if  it  was  for  this  or  for  that  that  they 
pelted  us,  I  went  over  each  topic  of  my  previous 
discourse.  All  listened  eagerly  now.  The  sullen, 
hostile  look  had  gone.  Shame  for  themselves  and 
evident  appreciation  of  the  spirit  that  we  had 
shown  led  them  ere  long  to  interrupt  me,  saying, 
"  It  was  only  some  of  the  vagabonds  that  cast 
stones  at  you ;  we  will  now  see  that  you  have  fair 
play." 

When  we  had  finished  our  second  preaching  to 
them,  and  told  them  that  we  had  in  our  hands  a 
history  of  this  divine  Redeemer,  the  Gospel  of 
Luke,  which  we  would  sell  them  for  a  dnddu,  one 
of  their  coins,  worth  about  one  cent  each,  and 


118  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

asked  if  they  would  not  like  to  obtain  some  of 
these  and  learn  more  about  this  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ,  one  after  another  took  out  his  money-bag 
and  purchased,  until  every  Gospel  and  tract  that 
we  had  with  us  had  been  bought ;  and  then  they 
appointed  five  of  their  chief  men  to  escort  us 
politely  to  our  tent,  and  begged  our  pardon  for 
the  indignities  which  "  this  graceless  rabble  "  had 
put  upon  us. 

This  and  the  one  spoken  of  in  the  last  chapter 
are  two  instances  of  very  different  treatment  met 
with  on  our  tours.  We  do  not  usually  meet  such 
eager  listening  on  the  one  hand,  or  maltreatment 
on  the  other,  but  we  go  forward  with  the  work, 
preaching  and  scattering  that  gospel  that  is  show- 
ing itself  more  and  more  to  be  "  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  belie veth." 


XI 

A  FRUITFUL  PREACHING  TOUR 

I  AM  moved  to  reproduce  here,  somewhat 
abridged,  a  diary  letter  written  on  a  long  preach- 
ing tour  in  1872,  to  give  a  sample  of  the  varied 
daily  incidents  on  such  a  tour  and  to  show  how 
we  sometimes  reap  fruits  in  our  missionary  work. 
The  letter  was  addressed  to  the  secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  and  was  published  in  full  in  the  "  In- 
telligencer "  of  that  time. 

"  RayalpAd,  Mysore,  May  23,  1872. 

♦*  I  am  out  here  at  present  on  another  preach- 
ing tour.  Under  the  pressure  of  the  terrible 
reductions  forced  upon  us  in  January,  we  feared 
that  we  would  have  to  relinquish  touring  for  this 
year;  but  enough  has  come  in,  in  donations  from 
friends  in  this  country,  to  enable  us  to  resume  our 
preaching  tours  in  an  economical  way. 

"  I  came  to  this  place,  the  first  stage  on  the 
road  to  Bangalore,  just  over  the  boundary  in  the 
119 


120  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

Mysore  kingdom,  because  there  is  a  little  trav- 
eler's bungalow  here  that  we  can  occupy  and  save 
the  expense  of  bringing  out  our  tents.  Dr.  E.  C. 
Scudder  and  I  first  visited  this  region  in  1862, 
just  ten  years  since,  and  I  toured  it  over  again 
thoroughly  in  1867,  but  have  not  been  able  to 
visit  it  since  until  now. 

"  This  morning  we  were  out  in  a  town  three  and 
one  half  miles  from  here,  where  I  had  never  be- 
fore been,  and  had  an  unusually  nice  audience, 
who  all  gathered  and  sat  in  the  village  court  and 
veranda,  while  at  their  invitation  I  sat  on  the 
magistrate's  platform  and  preached  to  them  of  the 
love  of  Jesus  and  His  free  salvation.  As  I  spoke 
of  what  He  had  done  and  suffered  for  us,  I 
noticed  a  moisture  in  many  eyes,  and  at  the  con- 
clusion the  village  magistrate  and  the  village 
schoolmaster  each  purchased  a  New  Testament, 
while  all  who  could  read  eagerly  bought  Gospels 
and  tracts. 

"Saturday,  May  25th.  I  rode  in  yesterday 
morning  twelve  miles  to  Madanapalle,  to  perform 
an  important  operation  at  the  hospital  and  to 
attend  to  other  work  at  the  station.  After  the 
operation,  which  I  am  glad  to  say  turned  out  well, 
I  preached  to  the  crowd  of  patients  waiting  in  the 
hospital  veranda,  and  had,  as  always  there,  a  most 
attentive  and  respectful  audience. 

"  I  have  reason  to  be  more  and  more  gratified 


A  FRUITFUL  PREACHING   TOUR  121 

Willi  une  aspects  of  the  medical  department  of  my 
work  in  this  region.  The  Httle  dispensary,  which 
I  began  in  1865  in  order  to  bring  the  villagers  to 
me  to  hear  the  truth,  when  the  doctors  on  account 
of  my  jungle  fever  forbade  my  going  to  the  vil- 
lages, has  grown  on  and  on  until  I  now  have  one 
of  the  finest  up-country  hospitals  and  dispensaries 
in  all  the  Madras  Presidency,  second,  of  course, 
to  our  large  mission  hospital  and  dispensary  at 
Arcot,  but  second  to  few  others.  As  you  know, 
I  carried  it  on  entirely  on  subscriptions  raised  in 
India  until  1869.  It  then  became  so  heavy  a 
burden,  both  in  expense  and  work  to  be  done, 
that  I  felt  that  I  could  not  longer  bear  it  all  my- 
self, and  at  my  request  the  government  took  it 
over  and  established  it  as  a  first-class  government 
hospital  and  dispensary,  placing  it,  however,  under 
my  full  control ;  and  from  that  time  to  this,  three 
years,  I  have  been  using  it  more  and  more  as  a 
missionary  hospital. 

"  I  am  told  now  by  the  authorities  at  Madras 
that  they  regard  it  still  as  a  mission  hospital,  for 
which  they  are  responsible  no  further  than  to  see 
that  it  has  all  the  funds  necessary.  At  my  urgent 
request,  however,  the  deputy  inspector-general  of 
the  medical  department  was  sent  here  in  February 
to  see  and  report  upon  its  working.  He  gave  in 
an  exceedingly  flattering  report,  calling  special 
attention  to  the  large  percentage  of  important 


122  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

and  successful  operations,  and  the  small  pecuniary 
outlay  per  hundred  patients  treated.  As  the  re- 
sult of  his  visit,  we  shall  receive  still  greater  aid 
this  year  from  the  government, 

"  During  the  last  month  I  have  had  the  privi- 
lege of  receiving  two  adults  into  our  congregation 
at  Madanapalle,  in  connection  with  my  dispensary 
work.  One,  a  man  of  forty,  came  from  the  Kurnool 
district  to  the  hospital  some  months  ago  with 
what  then  seemed  almost  an  incurable  disease. 
While  in  the  hospital  he  received  religious  instruc- 
tion with  the  others,  and  on  his  being  discharged 
cured  a  few  weeks  since,  he  gave  in  his  name  as 
a  Christian,  determined  to  live  and  die  in  the  re- 
ligion by  whose  agency  he  believed  that  his  life 
had  been  saved.  He  has  obtained  employment 
in  Madanapalle,  so  that  he  can  remain  here  and 
receive  further  instruction  and  be  baptized. 

"Tuesday,  May  28th.  We  rose  this  morning 
between  four  and  five  o'clock,  and  walked  out 
across  the  hills  five  miles  to  Adakil.  It  was  my 
first  visit  there.  Our  audience  consisted  almost 
entirely  of  Brahmans  and  Mohammedans ;  they 
listened  well  and  purchased  a  number  of  Scriptures 
and  tracts.  There  is  a  great  change  coming  over 
the  people,  as  evidenced  by  the  way  they  listen 
to  our  preaching. 

"  Day  before  yesterday,  Sunday  evening,  we 
preached   in    the   main   street  of    the   town  of 


A  FRUITFUL  PREACHING   TOUR  123 

Rayalpad  itself.  Twice  before  when  I  had  been 
here,  in  1862  and  1867,  I  had  found  rather  tur- 
bulent audiences ;  now  one  could  not  ask  for  a 
more  attentive  or  polite  audience  than  we  found. 
We  began  by  showing  man's  lost  condition  and 
the  insufificiency  of  their  system  to  redeem  a  soul 
from  eternal  death. 

"  An  aged  and  respectable  Brahman  said, '  We 
will  admit  all  that,  sir ;  now  will  you  not  please 
tell  us  how  we  can  be  saved  from  hell  ?  That  is 
what  we  most  earnestly  desire  to  know.'  And 
he  spoke  with  real  feeling. 

"  With  such  a  request  I  tried  to  set  forth,  in  all 
its  simplicity  and  loveliness,  that  wonderful  scheme 
of  grace,  showing  how  it  was  that  without  a  sacri- 
fice for  sin  there  could  be  no  remission,  and  that 
Christ  had  made  that  one  complete  sacrifice  that 
was  to  atone  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world,  and 
how  to  obtain  a  share  in  it.  As  I  finished,  the 
Brahman  who  had  spoken  before,  and  who  had 
followed  me  most  intently  all  the  way  through, 
said  to  another, '  Well,  we  never  heard  such  won- 
derful words  before;  we  must  examine  into  it 
carefully.'  And  he  purchased  some  of  our  books 
and  urged  others  to  do  the  same. 

"  As  soon  as  we  finish  this  region,  which  will 
take  ten  days  more,  I  expect  to  take  my  tents  and 
go  out  twenty  miles  northwest  of  Madanapalle  on 
a  medico-evangelistic  tour.     An  English  gentle- 


124  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

man  in  this  district,  who  takes  great  interest  in 
my  medical  work,  has  proposed  to  pay  the  ex- 
penses of  such  a  tour  up  to  Rs  200 ;  and  as  an- 
other has  already  sent  me  Rs  100  for  the  same 
purpose,  I  am  getting  ready  my  medicines  and 
going  out.  It  is  very  hard  work  for  one  to  carry 
on  both  medical  and  evangelistic  work  in  tents, 
but  it  pays,  and,  God  willing,  I  hope  to  do  a  good 
deal  of  it  this  year. 

"  Gattu,  June  15th.  We  completed  the  tour  of 
which  I  last  wrote  on  the  5  th  of  June,  and  re- 
turned to  Madanapalle  to  spend  the  Sabbath 
there,  as  it  was  our  communion  season.  It  was 
an  interesting  and,  I  trust,  profitable  time.  We 
were  permitted  to  receive  one  adult  to  the  com- 
munion on  confession  of  his  faith,  an  educated 
young  man  employed  under  government  in  the 
public  works  department,  and  five  by  certificate 
from  other  churches.  I  also  baptized  one  adult 
and  his  son,  converts  from  heathenism,  who  have 
long  been  under  instruction,  and  one  who  had 
been  under  suspension  was  restored.  Our  Chris- 
tian congregation  at  Madanapalle  now  numbers 
over  one  hundred,  and,  I  trust,  is  growing  in  all 
good  things. 

"  After  spending  the  Sabbath  at  home,  and 
having  four  days  to  prepare  our  chests  of  medi- 
cines, I  started  out  again,  June  loth,  with  my 
native  helpers  and  my  traveling  dispensary,  for  a 


A  FRUITFUL  PREACHING   TOUR  125 

two  months'  tour  in  this  direction,  northwest 
from  Madanapalle.  I  have  with  me  four  native 
preachers  and  two  medical  assistants  for  dis- 
pensing medicines,  wishing  to  be  able  to  preach 
night  and  morning  in  the  villages,  and  to  preach 
to  and  treat  all  who  come  to  the  tent  during  the 
day  for  medicines. 

"  Our  first  camp  was  at  Gattu,  a  town  eighteen 
miles  west  by  north  of  Madanapalle.  It  is  a  place 
where  we  have  often  toured  before,  and  one  near 
which  several  villages  have  at  different  times 
promised  to  come  over  to  Christianity.  We  are 
going  slowly  and  thoroughly  over  the  field  now, 
hoping  that  the  time  has  come  when  the  Lord  will 
give  some  of  them  courage  and  faith  to  come  out 
on  the  Lord's  side ;  for  we  believe  they  are  thor- 
oughly convinced  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  and 
are  only  held  back  by  fear  from  embracing  it. 

"  GoUapalle  Tope,  Tuesday,  July  i6th.  We 
have  swung  round  now  to  this  place,  our  third 
encampment  on  this  tour,  fifteen  miles  from 
Madanapalle  on  another  road,  and  eight  miles 
from  our  former  encampment.  This  morning  we 
rose  at  four  o'clock  and  started  before  it  was 
fairly  light  to  go  to  a  cluster  of  villages  nestled 
in  among  the  hills  to  the  north  of  this,  which  we 
had  never  before  reached.  After  a  stony  and 
thorny  walk  of  nearly  six  miles  through  the 
mountain  jungle,  we  came  into  a  valley  where  a 


126  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

number  of  villages  have  been  built.  We  preached 
in  all  these  and  were  most  cordially  received. 
Indeed,  I  found  there  some  old  patients  who  had 
been  treated  by  us  at  Madanapalle,  and  they 
seemed  almost  persuaded  to  become  Christians. 

"  On  reaching  my  tent  again  I  found  a  crowd 
of  nearly  fifty,  who  were  waiting  for  treatment, 
to  whom  the  catechist  whom  I  had  left  at  camp 
for  that  purpose  had  been  preaching,  and  to  whom 
he  had  given  tickets  entitling  them  to  treatment, 
on  each  of  which  is  printed  a  concise  statement 
of  the  way  of  salvation  through  Jesus  Christ. 

"  I  sat  down  at  once  and  commenced  their 
treatment.  It  was  after  twelve  o'clock  before  I 
got  through  with  all  who  were  waiting  and  was 
able  to  stop  for  breakfast.  In  the  afternoon  other 
crowds  came.  I  am  having  from  sixty  to  one 
hundred  patients  daily.  To  all  of  these  we  preach 
before  giving  medicines,  and  find  them  most  will- 
ing listeners ;  and,  as  almost  every  patient  is  ac- 
companied by  one  or  two  friends,  we  preach  each 
day  to  twice  our  number  of  patients  at  the  tent, 
besides  those  we  reach  in  the  villages. 

"Thursday,  July  i8th.  Yesterday  we  were 
going  out  to  a  market-town  six  miles  through  the 
hills,  as  it  was  the  weekly  market-day  there  and 
we  wished  to  preach  to  the  crowds  that  would 
assemble  ;  but  it  commenced  raining  before  5  A.M. 
and  rained  almost  continuously  through  the  day. 


A  FRUITFUL  PREACHING   TOUR  127 

I  was  surprised,  however,  to  find  numbers  of 
patients  dropping  in  through  the  day  in  spite  of 
the  rain.  They  had  heard  that  I  was  soon  to 
move  my  camp  on,  and,  fearful  of  missing  their 
chance,  they  came  through  the  rain  for  treatment. 
To-day  it  has  been  showery,  but  I  have  had  some 
seventy  patients  and  was  able  to  go  out  preaching 
in  the  evening. 

"  I  have  never,  I  think,  seen  such  real  earnest- 
ness in  the  reception  of  our  message  as  now.  I 
cannot  help  thinking  that  we  are  on  the  eve  of  an 
important  movement.  In  this  region  are  numbers 
of  villages  where  they  have  been  promising  us  for 
the  last  three  or  four  years  that  they  would  be- 
come Christians.  They  have  renewed  the  promise 
from  time  to  time,  and  I  hope  some  of  them  are 
now  ready  to  join  us. 

"  We  are  going  to-morrow  morning  early  to  a 
village  of  Mala  weavers  and  cultivators  three  miles 
from  here,  which  one  of  the  catechists  visited  a 
month  ago  from  another  encampment,  and  where 
some  of  the  people  seemed  ready  to  join  us.  I 
have,  however,  gone  so  many  times  to  villages 
hoping  to  receive  the  people,  and  found  that  they 
had  meantime  been  frightened  into  withdrawing 
again,  that  I  hope  with  trembling.  God  grant 
that  this  time  we  may  not  be  disappointed !  My 
six  assistants  and  myself  have  this  evening  been 
holding  a  special  prayer-meeting  in  their  behalf, 


128  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

praying  that  they  may  have  grace  and  strength 
given  them  from  on  high  boldly  to  confess  Christ 
to-morrow  morning. 

"  Friday  evening,  July  19th.  The  morning  has 
dawned,  and  blessed  be  God's  glorious  name  for 
ever  and  ever ;  verily  our  mouths  are  filled  with 
praise  and  thanksgiving. 

"  As  we  planned  yesterday,  we  went  out  early 
this  morning  to  the  village  of  Timmapalle.  The 
people  all  assembled,  small  and  great,  on  the 
smooth  granite  slope  at  the  base  of  the  rocky  hill 
at  the  foot  of  which  their  village  nestled.  The 
catechist  to  whom  they  had  given  their  promise 
a  month  before  first  addressed  them,  urging  the 
fulfilment  of  their  promise ;  I  followed,  taking  as 
my  theme,  ' "  How  long  halt  ye  between  two 
opinions?  if  the  Lord  be  God,  follow  Him;"  if 
these  your  idols  be  God,  then  stand  by  them. 
The  decision  should  no  longer  be  deferred.'  Then 
Jesus  Christ,  as  the  one  and  all-sufficient  Saviour, 
was  lovingly  set  forth  before  them. 

"  When  we  had  finished,  the  head  man  of  the 
village,  a  gray-haired  old  patriarch,  spoke  up : 
'  Put  my  name  down  as  a  Christian.  I  at  least 
will  no  longer  halt  between  two  opinions ;  Jesus 
Christ  must  be  my  Saviour.'  After  a  little  his 
younger  brother  said,  '  Add  my  name  to  his.' 

"  There  was  a  painful  pause.  I  asked, '  Is  there 
not  another  man  here  that  dares  to  make  a  third  ?  ' 


A  FRUITFUL  PREACHING   TOUR  129 

The  last  man  in  the  audience,  a  man  of  thirty, 
said,  '  Yes,  sir;  I  too  will  be  a  Christian.'  Then 
others  to  the  number  of  ten  heads  of  families  gave 
in  their  names  for  themselves  and  families,  the 
women  also  being  there,  as  the  Mala  women 
might  be,  and  agreeing. 

"  Placing  a  sheet  of  paper  on  the  granite 
boulder  by  the  side  of  which  we  had  stood  in 
speaking,  a  covenant  was  drawn  out,  in  which 
they  covenanted  to  renounce  all  their  idols,  to 
give  up  all  heathen  practices  and  customs,  and  to 
observe  the  precepts  of  the  gospel  so  far  as  they 
knew  them  or  should  be  further  instructed  in 
them  ;  we,  on  our  part,  covenanting  to  give  them 
a  catechist  who  should  reside  near  them  and  daily 
teach  them  in  the  way  of  life,  and  to  establish  a 
school  for  the  education  of  their  children.  Then, 
having  commended  them  in  prayer  to  God 
Jehovah,  whom  they  had  now  taken  as  their 
God,  and  promising  to  come  again  soon,  we  left 
them  and  came  back  to  our  camp. 

"  They  seem  well-to-do,  earnest  men ;  they 
have  been  considering  the  step  long,  and  we  hope 
they  will  be  firm.  There  are  several  more  heads 
of  families  belonging  to  the  village,  who  were 
absent  to-day ;  but  they  are  coming  too. 

"  It  was  after  nine  o'clock  when  we  got  back 
to  the  tent,  and  I  found  a  crowd  of  nearly  a  hun- 
dred waiting  for  medicines.     After  preaching  I 


130  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

commenced  treating  them,  and  worked  on  until 
twelve  o'clock;  but  finding  the  crowd  growing 
scarcely  perceptibly  less,  I  stopped  work  for  a  few 
minutes  and  ate  my  breakfast,  while  one  of  the 
catechists  was  preaching  again  to  the  crowd  out- 
side ;  and  then  I  began  once  more,  having  scarcely 
a  moment's  rest  during  the  day  and  not  finishing 
until  dark.  I  have  had  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
eight  patients  to-day,  of  whom  some  seventy 
were  new  cases,  and  some  of  them  important 
ones,  which  took  me  much  time.  It  has  been  a 
wearying,  but  intensely  interesting,  day  to  me. 
If  the  village  which  joined  us  this  morning  stands 
firm,  without  a  doubt  a  number  of  others  will  join 
us  at  once.  In  fact,  several  have  pledged  that  as 
soon  as  one  village  came  over  and  stood  firm  and 
survived  the  persecutions  they  would  have,  they 
too  would  come. 

"  The  arch-fiend  will  make  every  effort  to  make 
these  men  turn  back,  and  I  have  just  made  ar- 
rangements to  move  our  camp  to-morrow  morn- 
ing and  pitch  it  close  by  their  village  for  a  couple 
of  weeks,  to  support  and  encourage  them  by  our 
presence. 

"  I  had  before  promised  to  go  into  Madanapalle 
myself  to-morrow  to  operate  on  two  patients  for 
cataract,  whom  I  have  sent  in  there  this  week,  as 
such  operations  cannot  be  managed  in  a  tent.  I 
shall  therefore  go  in  myself  early  in  the  morning, 


A  FRUITFUL  PREACHING   TOUR  131 

but  my  tent  and  native  helpers  will  go  on  to  Tim- 
mapalle,  and  I  will  join  them  there,  God  willing, 
on  Monday. 

"Timmapalle,  Saturday,  July  27th.     This  has 
been  an  exceedingly  busy  and  eventful  week.     I 
went  on  horseback  to  Madanapalle  last  Saturday 
morning,  as  I  had  proposed,  and  on  getting  off 
my  pony  at  the  hospital  found  everything  ready 
for  me,  and  proceeded  to  operate  at  once  on  a 
man  of  standing,  a  revenue  inspector,  for  cataract, 
extracting  the  lens.     The  operation  promises  to 
be  a  successful  one.     Other  work  kept  me  very 
busy  during  the  day.      On  Sunday  I  preached  in 
our  church,  and  on  Monday  morning  had  to  at- 
tend to  matters  at  the  dispensary,  and  operate  on 
another  man  for  cataract,  and  was  returning  home 
to  breakfast,  intending  then  to  come  out  here, 
when  an  express  messenger  reached  me  from  an 
English  gentleman,  a  government  official  at  Pal- 
mane'r,  thirty-four  miles   south,  begging  me  to 
come  without  a  moment's  delay  and  see  his  wife, 
who  was  dangerously  ill.     He  had  sent  out  a 
bullock  coach,  posting  it  for  me  half-way,  in  con- 
fidence that  I  would  come. 

"  Much  as  I  desired  to  come  back  speedily  to 
this  village,  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  go.  I  arrived  at 
Palmaner  at  11  p.m.  and  found  the  lady  indeed 
very  ill,  and  was  obliged  to  stay  in  attendance  on 
her  until  Friday  morning  before  it  was  safe  to 


132  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

leave  her.  I  was  very  sorry  to  lose  this  four  days 
from  my  tent  at  this  critical  time,  but  as  it  was  a 
call  of  duty,  and  as  I  received  a  liberal  fee,  which 
will  help  me  bear  the  expenses  of  this  tour  for 
many  days  longer,  I  could  not  complain.  I  have 
had  a  long  horseback  ride  in  the  sun  to-day,  more 
than  thirty  miles,  to  reach  this  place,  but  I  felt 
that  I  must  be  back  as  soon  as  possible.  Since 
reaching  here  this  evening  I  have  received  the 
names  of  the  remaining  eleven  families  of  this 
village,  Timmapalle,  and  the  names  of  five  families 
from  the  hamlet  of  Razapalle,  half  a  mile  north, 
and  the  names  of  nine  families  of  Nalcheru- 
vupalle,  one  and  a  half  miles  northeast.  This 
makes  twenty-five  families  who  have  given  in 
their  names  to  be  Christians  to-day,  in  addition 
to  the  ten  before.  Pray  for  us,  that  the  Lord 
may  make  these  all  stanch  and  steadfast  Chris- 
tians, for  they  will  meet  with  much  persecution. 

"  Monday,  July  29th.  The  arch-fiend  is  doing 
his  best,  or  rather  worst,  to  frighten  these  people 
into  giving  up  trying  to  be  Christians.  Saturday 
night  and  yesterday  morning  evil-disposed  per- 
sons from  other  villages  got  hold  of  these  people 
and  succeeded  in  frightening  them  so,  with  such 
pictures  of  the  evils  which  were  sure  to  come  upon 
them  for  renouncing  their  old  gods,  that  some  of 
them  actually  fled  in  terror  to  the  jungle  and  hid 
all  day  yesterday ;  others  hid  in  caves ;    others 


A  FRUITFUL  PREACHING   TOUR  133 

barred  themselves  in  their  close  houses  and  did  no 
cooking,  lest  smoke  should  reveal  their  presence. 

"  Only  a  few  had  courage  to  come  to  my  tent 
for  worship  in  the  morning ;  more  came  in  the 
evening ;  and  to-day,  as.  they  see  that  no  harm 
has  come  on  them  so  far,  they  seem  less  fearful. 

"  I  expected  great  difficulty  in  getting  land 
here  for  a  school-house  chapel  and  native  helpers* 
house,  as  the  landholders  are  all  banded  against 
us;  so  the  joint  magistrate  of  the  district,  an 
English  Christian  gentleman  and  one  of  my  warm- 
est supporters,  came  out  here  to-day  on  purpose 
to  show  to  the  people  about  here  his  sympathy  in 
the  movement  and  to  secure  for  us  the  needed 
land.  I  am  glad  to  say  we  succeeded  in  getting 
the  very  piece  I  wanted.  A  necessary  surgical 
operation  yesterday,  performed  on  the  son  of  the 
owner  of  that  piece  of  ground,  helped  our  negotia- 
tions wonderfully. 

"  Friday,  August  2d,  We  have  begun  to  erect 
the  building  which  is  to  serve  both  as  school- 
house  and  church  here,  for  the  present,  for  the 
villagers  near  enough  to  attend  here.  It  is  to  be 
of  mud  or  adobe  walls,  with  thatched  roof,  fifteen 
by  forty  feet  in  size.  The  people  here  contribute 
their  labor  toward  the  building  and  furnish  the 
materials  for  the  roof.  The  needed  money  out- 
lay must  be  met  by  special  donations  for  the 
purpose. 


134  JN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

"  Wednesday,  August  7th.  Have  been  on  the 
move  again  since  my  last  date.  Saturday  morn- 
ing early  I  rode  in  to  the  hospital  for  two  more 
operations  and  to  attend  to  the  location  of  an  ad- 
ditional hospital  building,  which  is  to  be  erected 
for  us  by  government.  Spending  Sunday  at 
home,  I  returned  to  this  place.  We  are  busily 
engaged  in  preaching  the  gospel  in  all  of  the 
towns  and  villages  within  five  miles  of  our  tent. 
A  steady  stream  of  patients  for  treatment  con- 
tinues. My  evenings  I  give  up  to  the  instruction 
of  new  converts,  having  them  in  my  tent  every 
night.  I  have  also  people  from  the  high-caste 
villages  near  by,  who  come  into  the  tent  and  sit 
freely  side  by  side  with  the  Mala  converts.  I  have 
had  many  interesting  conversations  with  people 
from  the  adjacent  high-caste  villages.  My  stay- 
ing here  and  treating  their  sick  is  inclining  them 
to  be  friendly  to  the  new  converts,  instead  of 
persecuting  them ;  I  hope  so,  at  least. 

"  Sunday,  Augu.st  nth.  Yesterday  was  the 
weekly  market-day  at  the  town  of  Burrakayala- 
kota,  one  mile  from  here.  We  were  all  intending 
to  go  there  and  preach,  but  I  was  kept  on  my  cot 
in  the  tent  by  a  severe  pull  of  jungle  fever.  I 
have  been  out  so  much  in  the  sun  and  wet  for  the 
two  and  a  half  months  of  this  tour,  and  with  plenty 
of  long,  hard  rides  and  walks,  that  I  find  myself 
having  an  attack  of  fever  every  few  days.     In 


A  FRUITFUL  PREACHING   TOUR  135 

fact  if  I  did  not  hug  the  quinine  bottle  pretty 
closely  I  would  be  quite  knocked  up;  and  just 
now  I  am  anxious  to  be  able  to  look  thoroughly 
after  this  opening  work.  I  carry  a  small  bottle 
of  quinine  in  my  pocket  wherever  I  go,  and  am 
usually  able  to  anticipate  and  stave  off  the  attack, 
but  yesterday  I  was  floored.  _ 

"  The  native  helpers,  however,  went  to  the  fair 
and  had  a  very  interesting  time.  At  the  conclu- 
sion  of  their  preaching  a  respectable,  gray-haired 
old  man,  a  Mala  cultivator,  came  to  them  and 
asked  after  me,  saying  that  he  had  hoped  to  meet 
me  there,  having  heard  that  we  were  in  this 
region;  for  he  and  his  people  wanted  to  become 
Christians,  and  he  wished  to  ask  me  to  come  to 
their  village  and  receive  them.  ^ 

"  He  and  his  nephew  were  old  patients  of  mine. 
His  nephew  had  been  brought  to  my  dispensary 
on  a  native  cot,  borne  by  four  men,  in  1869,  m 
what  seemed  a  dying  condition.    A  severe  surgi- 
cal operation  was  the  only  thing  that  could  save 
his  Ufe     The  operation  was  performed ;  the  young 
man  recovered.    For  two  weeks,  while  they  were 
there,  they  and  the  young  man's  mother  hstened 
attentively  to  the  daily  reading  of  the  Word  and 
preaching  and  prayer  in  the  hospital.    On  return- 
ing to  their  village  they  took  with  them  Gospels 
and  tracts,  saying  that  they  would  never  worship 
their  old  gods  again,  and  they  wanted  these  books 


136  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

for  themselves  and  their  neighbors  to  read,  that 
they  might  learn  to  worship  our  God.  We  had 
meantime  lost  sight  of  them,  and  they  now  re- 
ported that  all  of  their  Httle  hamlet  were  ready 
to  embrace  Christianity.  Their  village  is  five  and 
a  half  miles  from  our  present  camp, 

"  This  morning  at  four  o'clock  my  native  help- 
ers started  for  that  village.  Feeling  too  weak  from 
yesterday's  fever  to  walk  with  them,  I  started 
somewhat  later  and  went  on  horseback.  As  I 
was  passing  a  village  about  half-way,  riding  rap- 
idly to  overtake  the  native  helpers,  the  village 
magistrate  came  running  out  and  begged  me  to 
stop  and  see  a  man  suffering  intensely  from  a 
deep-seated  abscess  in  the  sole  of  his  foot.  I  did 
so,  and  opened  the  abscess  with  a  pocket  instru- 
ment, gave  directions  for  poulticing,  told  him  to 
Send  a  man  to  my  tent  for  medicines,  and  went 
on.  On  arriving  at  the  little  hamlet  of  Nalapora- 
palle  I  recognized  my  two  old  friends  at  once,  and 
they  seemed  very  glad  to  see  me.  After  a  very 
interesting  talk  with  the  people,  all  the  six  fami- 
lies residing  in  this  little  hamlet  gave  in  their 
names,  renouncing  heathenism  and  placing  them- 
selves under  Christian  instruction. 

"  On  our  way  back  we  stopped  to  preach  in  a 
number  of  other  villages,  vi^here  much  interest  is 
manifested,  and  did  not  reach  our  tent  until  near 
noon,  and  it  was  i  P.M.  before  we  were  able  to 


A  FRUITFUL  PREACHING   TOUR  137 

meet  for  our  morning  Sabbath  service.  Several 
new  faces  appeared  in  the  congregation,  and  the 
deepest  interest  was  maintained. 

"  Monday,  August  I2th.  We  went  this  morn- 
ing to  the  village  a  mile  and  a  half  north  of  this, 
Nalcheruvupalle,  the  people  of  which  embraced 
Christianity  several  days  since,  had  a  service  with 
the  people,  and  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  good 
site  for  erecting  a  school-house  church.  While 
preaching  to  them  the  people  of  the  high-caste 
village  adjoining  came  and  sat  down  and  listened 
most  attentively,  and  at  the  conclusion  promised 
to  send  their  children  for  instruction  as  soon  as 
our  Christian  school  was  established. 

"  The  leading  men  of  several  of  the  surround- 
ing villages,  including  Brahmans,  Rajpoots,  gold- 
smiths, merchants,  Sudras,  have  come  to  my  tent 
to-day  to  have  a  talk  with  me  about  the  *  new  re- 
ligion,' and  to  express  their  gratification  that  we 
were  going  to  establish  a  Christian  school  here. 
Several,  including  the  magistrate  of  this  village, 
promise  to  send  their  sons. 

"  Thus  far  we  have  received  ten  villages  under 
Christian  instruction.  This  is  the  movement  of 
which  I  wrote  you  in  February,  1869,  that  I  was 
sure  was  coming.  I  have  been  watching  for  it, 
toiling  for  it,  praying  for  it,  and  it  has  come,  and 
I  am  almost  overwhelmed  with  the  greatness  of 
the  work  that  is  thrust  upon  me.      How  can  one 


138  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

missionary  alone  stand  under  such  a  load,  precious 
though  that  load  be  ?  '  The  harvest  truly  is  great, 
but  the  laborers  are  few:  pray  ye  therefore  the 
Lord  of  the  harvest,  that  He  would  send  forth 
laborers  into  His  harvest;'  and  not  only  pray, 
but  oh,  ye  sworn  followers  of  Christ  in  America, 
send  forth  your  sons  to  gather  in  His  glorious 
harvest." 


XII 

OUR  VILLAGE   CATHEDRAL 

Within  a  fortnight  of  the  coming  over  to 
Christianity  of  the  people  of  the  little  village  of 
Timmapalle,  we  had  secured  a  site,  and  our  first 
village  school-house  church  was  going  up  before 
my  eyes  as  I  remained  there  in  camp. 

The  quarter  of  an  acre  we  had  purchased  was 
located  one  hundred  yards  north  of  the  northern- 
most house  of  the  little  hamlet,  and  my  tent  was 
pitched  in  the  middle  of  the  lot,  between  where 
the  church  and  the  house  for  the  catechist  were 
to  be.  In  that  I  was  holding  meetings  every  even- 
ing for  the  instruction  of  the  new  converts,  and 
during  the  day  I  was  treating  all  patients  who 
came  in  from  surrounding  villages,  high  caste  or 
low  caste. 

The  people  of  this  hamlet,  who  had  now  in  a 
body  embraced  Christianity,  were  Malas,  a  low 
caste  among  the  Telugus,  but  little  higher  than 
the  Pariahs  among  the  Tamils;  but  this  did  not 
prevent  the  highest  castes  of  the  region  from  com- 
139 


140  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

ing  to  my  tent,  pitched  adjoining  their  hamlet,  for 
medical  treatment  or  for  religious  conversation  or 
discussion. 

The  new  converts  had  promised  to  contribute 
their  labor  toward  the  erection  of  a  church,  and 
to  supply  the  material  for  the  roof,  several  high- 
caste  landholders  of  the  surrounding  villages  hav- 
ing agreed  each  to  furnish  one  beam. 

As  soon  as  the  land  was  secured  the  foundation 
for  the  church  was  staked  out,  forty  by  fifteen 
feet.  The  men,  the  new  converts,  came  with  their 
native  pickaxes,  with  only  one  blade  each  and 
with  a  round  point  and  very  heavy,  so  that  they 
could  drive  them  into  the  stone-like  subsoil,  and 
with  their  shovels,  with  short  handles  put  to  them 
at  right  angles  like  a  hoe,  and  began  the  ex- 
cavation. 

One  span  deep  they  came  to  the  dense  clay  and 
gravel  subsoil,  almost  as  hard  as  stone.  The  women 
took  their  earthen  water-pots — "  pitchers  "  they 
are  sometimes  called  in  the  Bible — on  their  heads 
and  in  single  file  marched  down  to  the  "  tank,"  or 
dammed  pond  where  water  is  stored  for  irrigation, 
an  eighth  of  a  mile  distant,  and  brought  up  at 
each  trip  four  or  five  gallons  of  water  apiece,  and 
poured  it  into  this  excavation.  The  men,  throw- 
ing in  some  of  the  earth  they  had  dug  out, 
tramped  it  up  with  their  bare  feet  into  a  thick  clay. 

Ten  feet  away,  along  the  border  line  of  our  land, 


OUR   TILLAGE  CATHEDRAL  141 

they  dug  a  long  trench  three  feet  deep,  pouring 
in  water  to  soften  it  as  they  dug.  The  intensely 
hard  subsoil  was  mixed  with  the  softer  earth  they 
had  dug  in  the  foundation,  and  worked  up  by  feet 
and  hands  into  rough  cubes  of  half  a  cubic  foot 
each,  and  put  out  upon  the  ground  in  the  sun  to 
bake,  like  the  adobe  of  New  Mexico,  The  hot 
sun  baked  them  hard  enough  in  a  day  or  two  to 
build  into  the  foundation  and  wall,  and  the  walls 
began  to  rise. 

In  each  end  was  a  doorway  four  feet  wide. 
When  the  walls  were  built  up  with  these  dried 
bricks  of  clay  and  gravel,  or  adobe,  two  and  a 
half  feet  high,  openings  two  and  a  half  feet  wide 
were  left  for  windows.  Rough  frames  for  these 
windows  were  made  by  the  village  plow-maker, 
for  here  they  all  still  use  wooden  plows  like  those 
used  by  Abraham  to  plow  his  fields  at  Beersheba, 
and  the  plow-makers  are  accustomed  to  do  the 
rough  house-carpentering  as  well.  These  frames 
had  male  bamboos,  that  is,  bamboos  with  no  holes 
in  them  and  stronger,  framed  in  them  perpen- 
dicularly four  inches  apart  for  bars. 

The  windows  would  have  no  glass  nor  Venetian 
blinds  nor  shutters  of  any  kind,  and  these  bars 
were  necessary  for  protection,  as  otherwise  hyenas 
or  jackals  or  other  animals  prowling  around  at 
night  jump  in  and  do  damage.  I  have  known  of 
a  hyena  springing  into  the  unbarred  window  of  a 


142  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

native  house,  in  a  warm  night  when  the  shutters 
were  open,  and  seizing  the  infant  from  its  sleep- 
ing mother's  breast,  spring  out  again  and  bound 
off  with  the  screaming  child  to  the  jungle,  in  spite 
of  anything  the  aroused  household  could  do. 

A  yoke  of  buffaloes  with  solid,  wooden-wheeled 
cart  came  driving  in  one  morning  with  the  prom- 
ised beam  from  one  landholder.  It  was  the  trunk 
of  a  cocoanut-tree.  Another  brought  a  beam  of 
better  wood  from  a  dismantled  mill  for  grinding 
and  pressing  sugar-cane,  much  of  which  is  grown 
in  that  region,  and  others  followed. 

After  laying  a  few  feet  in  height  of  the  adobe 
walls,  the  men  would  leave  them  for  a  couple  of 
days  to  dry,  and  go  to  the  jungle  forests  a  few 
miles  away,  and  with  their  crooked  bill-hook  axes 
cut  and  bring  in  on  their  heads  saplings  for  the 
rafters.  Others  went  to  the  aloe  hedges  along  the 
outside  of  the  rice-fields  and  cut  and  brought  in 
the  leaves,  a  yard  tall,  from  the  outside  of  the 
hedges,  and  with  stones  pounded  out  the  pulp  and 
secured  the  long  fibers  for  lashing  the  wattles  on 
the  rafters  before  putting  on  the  thatch,  the  larger 
rafters  being  tied  on  with  rope  made  from  the 
fiber  of  the  cocoanut  husk ;  while  the  women 
went  to  the  adjacent  rocky  hills  and  cut  the  long, 
wiry  mountain  grass  and  brought  it  in  large,  long 
bundles  on  their  heads  for  thatch. 

When  the  walls   were   completed,  eight  feet 


OUR   VILLAGE  CATHEDRAL  143 

high,  flat  granite  slabs  were  brought,  quarried 
from  the  hillside  by  building  a  fire  over  t^e  re- 
quired surface,  and  pouring  on  cold  water  when 
the  rock  was  heated,  and  so  blistering  ofT  the 
slabs.  One  of  these  was  placed  on  top  of  the 
adobe  wall  where  each  transverse  beam  was  to 
rest,  to  give  stability  and  to  keep  the  white  ants, 
which  would  bore  up  through  the  dried  bricks, 
from  boring  on  up  into  the  timbers  and  destroy- 
ing the  roof. 

On  the  center  of  these  transverse  beams  seven- 
foot  uprights  were  erected,  and  on  those  the  ridge- 
pole was  secured.  The  rafters  were  tied  to  this 
and  to  wall-plates,  placed,  however,  on  the  trans- 
verse beams  a  foot  outside  of  the  walls,  to  make 
wide  eaves,  that  would  protect  the  clay  walls 
from  the  drenching  rains  during  the  monsoon. 
The  wattles  were  tied  on  these  with  the  aloe  fiber. 
The  women  brought  upmorewaterand  thoroughly 
moistened  the  long  mountain  grass  so  that  it  would 
pack  more  compactly  in  thatching,  one  or  two 
practised  hands  tied  on  the  thatch  as  it  was  tossed 
up  to  them  in  small  bundles,  and  the  roof  was 
complete. 

We  had  wanted  to  call  in  men  of  the  hereditary 
caste  of  well-  and  tank-diggers  and  wall-builders, 
as  there  was  so  much  work  in  the  building  of  the 
walls;  but  they  would  not  come  unless  we  would 
let  them  sacrifice  to  their  gods  on  the  spot  a  sheep 


144  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

or  a  kid,  or  at  least  a  fowl,  so  that  their  gods 
would  protect  them  from  accident  during  the 
building,  which,  of  course,  we  would  not  allow. 

The  walls  and  roof  were  at  last  ready.  The 
plow-maker  shaped  the  rough  mango  planks  we 
had  bought  into  double  doors  for  the  front  and 
rear.  The  women  made  a  rough  mortar,  Hindu 
fashion,  from  clay  and  sand  and  cow  dung  mixed, 
and,  with  the  palms  of  their  hands  for  trowels, 
plastered  the  adobe  walls  within  and  without,  and 
then  whitewashed  them,  using  brushes  made  from 
the  stems  of  date-tree  leaves.  The  men  brought 
in  more  of  the  moist  clay  gravel  from  the  trench, 
and  laying  it  a  span  deep  over  the  ground  inside 
the  walls,  pounded  it  down  with  rammers  made 
from  the  palmyra-tree,  and  made  a  smooth  kind 
of  concrete  floor;  and  then  the  women  brought, 
in  little  baskets  on  their  heads,  clean- washed  sand 
from  the  bed  of  the  adjacent  stream,  and  spread 
it  half  an  inch  thick  over  the  floor  for  a  carpet. 

A  camp-table  for  pulpit  and  a  chair  for  the 
preacher  were  placed  in  it,  and  our  new  cathedral 
was  complete. 

This  was  the  first  of  the  villages  that  had  come 
over,  and  quite  central ;  so  we  erected  here  the 
largest  and  most  costly  of  all  our  village  build- 
ings,— larger  than  needed  for  this  little  hamlet, — 
that  we  might  here  hold  our  special  services  and 
our  quarterly  meetings,  and  here  administer  the 


OUR    VILLAGE   CATHEDRAL  145 

Lord's  Supper  for  all  this  circle.  So  this  is  "  our 
cathedral." 

On  the  Sunday  morning  the  head  of  each  family 
comes,  bringing  rolled  up  a  date  mat  or  a  coarse 
black  goat's-hair  blanket  rug,  and  spreads  it  down 
on  the  sand  for  himself  and  sons  to  sit  on ;  this  is 
their  "  pew  "  ;  while  the  wife  brings  another  and 
places  it  on  the  other  side  of  the  church  for  her- 
self and  daughters  and  the  women  of  her  house 
to  occupy ;  for  in  these  little  village  churches,  ac- 
cording to  the  custom  of  the  country,  the  men  must 
sit  on  one  side  and  the  women  apart  on  the  other. 

In  this  building  during  the  week  our  day-school 
is  held.  The  old-time  custom  of  the  country  re- 
quires village  schools  to  begin  at  sunrise  and,  with 
an  hour  intermission  at  noon,  close  when  it  is  too 
dark  longer  to  see  the  books.  We  compromised 
the  matter  by  having  school  from  7  A.M.  to  12, 
and  from  i  to  5  P.M. 

The  alphabet  class  requires  no  text-books ;  they 
sit  on  the  sanded  floor,  and  watching  the  teacher 
make  a  letter  in  the  sand  with  his  finger,  they 
make  it  after  him,  thus  learning  reading  and  writ- 
ing at  the  same  time. 

Every  evening  this  new  church  is  used  for 
"  village  prayers  " ;  for  the  unlearned  villagers, 
unable  most  of  them  to  conduct "  family  prayers  " 
in  their  own  houses,  come  together  here  for  even- 
ing worship. 


146  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

The  catechist,  or  the  schoolmaster  in  villages 
where  there  is  no  catechist,  makes  a  good  deal  of 
the  evening  prayers.  Besides  reading  and  ex- 
pounding a  chapter  in  the  Bible  and  offering 
prayer,  concluding  with  the  Lord's  Prayer,  in 
which  all  the  people  join,  he  drills  old  and  young 
in  the  catechism,  and  teaches  them  to  sing  the 
beautiful  Telugu  Christian  lyrics,  and  right  heart- 
ily do  they  sing. 

Some  months  after  the  erection  of  this  our 
cathedral,  we  held  in  it  a  special  service,  that 
comes  lovingly  to  my  memory.  A  meeting  of  our 
Telugu  Bible  Revision  Committee,  of  which  I  was 
chairman,  was  being  held  at  Madanapalle,  at 
which  delegates  were  present  for  several  weeks 
from  the  different  missionary  societies  laboring  in 
the  Telugu  country.  One  Saturday  evening  sev- 
eral of  us  went  out  twenty  miles  to  Timmapalle 
for  the  Sabbath  service.  The  people  of  the  adja- 
cent villages  had  been  invited  to  gather  there. 

In  the  early  morning  they  began  to  arrive,  and 
more  and  more  came.  We  missionaries  were 
seated  in  camp-chairs  against  the  rear  wall,  and 
the  camp- table  pulpit  drawn  up  close  to  us  to  save 
room.  Our  native  assistants  were  seated  on  a  rug 
at  our  right.  The  people  came  in  and  were 
seated  in  rows  across  the  building  cross-legged, 
native  fashion,  and  so  close  together  that  their 


OUR   yiLLAGE  CATHEDR/tL  147 

shoulders  touched.  The  knees  of  the  second  row 
touched  the  backs  of  those  in  the  front  row,  and 
thus  the  church  was  packed.  The  people  were  so 
compact  that  a  rat  could  not  have  made  its  way 
from  front  to  rear,  and  those  who  could  not  get 
in  were  listening  from  the  outside  through  the 
open  doors  and  windows. 

My  English  brother  missionary  of  the  Church 
of  England  took  the  morning  service.  He  was  a 
fine  singer  of  Telugu  lyrics,  and  when  that  whole 
congregation,  of  those  who  were  one  year  ago 
worshipers  of  Vishnu  and  of  idols,  joined  in 
hymning  the  praises  of  Jesus  with  reverent  air 
and  hearty  voice,  he  seemed  to  be  carried  away 
by  it  into  another  land,  and  his  earnest  sermon 
of  such  spiritually  uplifting  power  was  an  index 
of  where  his  thoughts  had  been. 

The  afternoon  sermon  was  by  my  American 
Baptist  colleague,  and  was  a  fit  sequel  to  the  ser- 
mon of  the  morning.  The  evening  service  was 
conducted  by  one  of  still  another  denomination, 
and  was  followed  by  earnest  personal  talks  with 
the  many  who  lingered  for  a  further  word. 

At  midnight,  as  we  were  getting  into  our  coach 
to  return  for  our  morning  work  at  Madanapalle, 
my  English  Episcopal  friend  said  to  me,  "  I  have 
heard  more  artistic  singing  of  the  praises  of  Im- 
manuel  in  some  of  the  famed  churches  of  my  dear 


148  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

old  England,  but  none  that  I  believe  went  straight- 
er  to  the  throne  of  God  or  sounded  more  sweet 
to  our  Redeemer.  I  have  greatly  enjoyed  many 
services  in  England's  grand  cathedrals,  but  never 
so  much  as  these  of  to-day  among  the  newly  re- 
deemed ones  in  this  your  village  cathedral." 


XIII 

THE   BUILDING   AND   OPENING   OF  A   FREE 
READING-ROOM   AT   MADANAPALLE 

For  a  long  time  we  had  tried  in  vain  to  obtain 
the  slightest  foothold  within  the  thickly  built 
native  town  of  Madanapalle.  The  Telugus  are 
always  courteous  and  kind  to  strangers,  and  so 
long  as  we  remained  outside  of  the  town  they  were 
friendly  and  helpful.  The  very  few  European 
houses  so  far  built  here  are  located  on  the  oppo- 
site side  from  the  town  of  a  little  river  or  creek, 
which  is  dry  except  during  the  early  and  the  late 
rainy  seasons.  Our  house  is  built  here,  and  our 
temporary  mud-wall  and  thatched-roof  place  of 
worship  was  of  necessity  placed  here  also,  as  we 
could  not  get  a  place  nearer  the  people. 

I  had  long  ago  determined  to  secure,  if  possi- 
ble, by  purchase  or  for  rent,  one  of  the  town 
bazaars  or  small  stores,  or  to  buy  one  of.  the  very 
few  vacant  lots  and  build  and  open  a  free  read- 
ing-room, which  should  be  well  stocked  with 
vernacular  and  English  newspapers,  gazettes, 
149 


150  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

magazines,  and  books,  and  to  use  that  for  even- 
ing preaching  one  day  in  the  week,  so  as  to  get 
hold  of  the  educated  portion  of  the  non-Christian 
community,  to  whom  we  had  not  thus  far  gained 
as  close  access  as  we  had  desired. 

My  every  effort  had  been  foiled.  When  in 
passing  through  the  streets  I  found  that  a  bazaar 
or  store  had  been  vacated,  and  learned  that  its 
owners  were  in  the  habit  of  renting  it,  I  would 
quietly  enter  into  negotiations  to  rent  it.  Noth- 
ing is  done  by  Hindus  without  due,  or  rather  un- 
due, deliberation,  and  although  I  would  accede 
to  the  owner's  terms,  there  must  be  further  delay 
before  the  papers  were  drawn  out.  The  other 
Hindus  would  learn  of  it  and  bring  such  pressure 
to  bear  on  the  owner  that  he  would  back  out  of 
his  not  yet  signed  contract. 

I  offered  double  rent,  but  no  owner  dared  to 
let  me  have  a  place.  A  bazaar  was  for  sale;  I 
learned  the  price  and  tendered  the  money ;  it 
was  refused.  The  owner  came  secretly  to  see  me, 
saying  that  he  would  be  glad  to  sell  it  to  me,  but 
that  all  his  caste  people  would  boycott  him  if  he 
did.  I  oflFered  him  double  the  price ;  no,  he  would 
be  turned  out  of  his  caste  if  he  let  me  have  it. 

At  last,  in  1870,  my  opportunity  came.  A 
corner  lot  on  one  of  the  main  streets,  opposite  the 
post-office,  had  been  for  years  in  litigation.  The 
old  building  on  it  had  tumbled  down.    It  was  one 


FREE  READING-ROOM  AT  MADANAPALLE    151 

of  the  best  sites  in  the  whole  town  for  a  reading- 
room  and  evangelistic  hall.  The  case  in  the  chief 
district  court  eighty  miles  away  was  decided,  and 
a  decree  was  issued  ordering  the  lot,  a  small  one,  to 
be  sold  by  public  auction,  and  the  proceeds  divided 
in  a  certain  way  between  the  contending  heirs. 

Even  now  I  could  not  appear  openly  as  a  pur- 
chaser, nor  could  any  of  our  native  Christians  nor 
any  one  known  to  be  in  my  employ  bid  openly 
on  it,  or  a  combination  would  be  formed  and  it 
would  be  run  up  to  twenty  times  its  value  to  pre- 
vent our  getting  a  footing  in  the  streets  of  the 
town. 

There  was  a  young  Brahman  assistant  in  the 
English  magistrate's  office  now  living  in  town,  who 
had  attracted  my  attention  as  a  man  of  intelli- 
gence, of  excellent  character,  and  of  indepen- 
dence. I  invited  him  to  come  to  my  house  and 
see  me,  and  explained  to  him  my  plans  for  open- 
ing a  free  reading-room  ;  told  what  Telugu,  Tamil, 
Kanarese,  Marathi,  Hindustani,  and  English  peri- 
odicals, and  what  government  gazettes,  and  what 
maps,  dictionaries,  encyclopedias,  and  books  of 
history,  travel,  and  science  I  proposed  to  put  in 
for  the  free  use  of  all  who  chose  to  make  that 
their  literary  center,  with  ample  conveniences  for 
writing  and  for  study.  He  became  very  much 
interested  in  the  project  and  said  it  would  be  an 
unspeakable  boon  to  the  town. 


152  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

I  told  him  I  would  do  all  this  if  he  had  the 
courage  to  go  to  the  auction  and  bid  in  that  cor- 
ner lot  in  his  own  name,  pay  for  it  on  the  spot 
with  money  I  would  put  in  his  hands  for  the  pur- 
pose, have  the  papers  made  out  there  by  the  court 
officers  in  his  own  name  to  avoid  interference,  and 
then  transfer  the  title  to  me  and  have  the  transac- 
tion completed  beyond  recall  before  any  one  sus- 
pected what  he  bought  the  lot  for,  so  that  they 
would  see  that  interference  would  be  in  vain  and 
would  not  trouble  him  so  much.  I  told  him  that 
probably  all  his  coreligionists  would  curse  him  at 
first,  but  that  within  two  months  after  the  read- 
ing-room was  opened,  and  they  experienced  its 
advantages,  they  would  bless  him  still  more  heart- 
ily and  lastingly,  and  that  it  all  depended  now  on 
whether  he  had  backbone  enough  to  undertake 
the  matter,  and  pledged  that  I  would  do  all  in  my 
power  to  shield  him  from  serious  abuse. 

He  sat  for  a  few  moments  in  deep  thought,  and 
then,  straightening  himself  up,  he  said,  with  de- 
termination manifest  in  every  feature,  "  Yes,  sir, 
I  will  do  it ;  you  shall  have  the  deeds  of  that  lot 
in  your  hands  before  midnight." 

I  placed  in  his  hands  double  the  highest  sum 
we  thought  the  lot  would  bring,  so  that  he  need 
not  have  to  send  to  me  for  more  and  so  reveal  the 
source  of  his  supply.  The  sale  was  to  take  place 
at  noon.    The  day  was  one  of  prayer  on  the  part 


FREE  RE/fDING-ROOM  AT  MADAN/tPALLE    153 

of  my  three  native  assistants,  to  whom  alone  I  had 
revealed  my  scheme,  and  myself,  that  there  might 
be  no  slip,  but  that  the  gospel  might  thus  gain  a 
home  within  the  busy  town. 

As  soon  as  it  was  dark  that  evening  my  Brah- 
man friend  appeared  with  face  radiant,  if  a  little 
anxious,  saying,  "  I  have  succeeded.  Here  is  the 
deed  for  the  land  in  your  name,  and  here  is  the 
certificate  from  the  registrar  that  the  deed  has 
been  registered ;  for  he  is  a  friend  of  mine,  and 
stopped  after  office  hours  to  register  it  himself 
after  his  clerks  had  gone.  He  is  pledged  to 
secrecy,  and  no  one  outside  suspects  what  the  lot 
has  been  purchased  for,  and  here  is  the  balance 
of  the  money  you  placed  in  my  hands.  You  will 
erect  and  open  the  reading-room  quickly,  will  you 
not?  so  that  the  period  of  abuse  from  my  coreli- 
gionists may  be  as  brief  as  possible." 

I  thanked  him  heartily,  told  him  I  would  en- 
deavor to  see  that  he  never  regretted  the  bold 
stand  he  had  taken,  and  that  he  would  himself 
be  surprised  to  see  the  prompt  developments. 

I  had  building  going  on  at  the  hospital  with  a 
building  maistry,  or  overseer,  and  a  corps  of 
masons,  carpenters,  and  coolies,  whom  I  could 
transfer  at  once  to  another  work  if  I  saw  fit. 
Word  had  come  to  me  at  three  o'clock  that  the 
lot  had  been  knocked  down  to  my  friend  as  the 
highest  bidder,  and  I  had  lost  no  time  in  making 


154  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

my  arrangements.  I  had  sent  for  a  stone  con- 
tractor whom  I  employed,  and  he  had  engaged  to 
have  thirty  cart-loads  of  foundation  stone  stand- 
ing in  carts  at  my  gate  at  daylight  the  next  morn- 
ing, to  be  dumped  wherever  my  maistry  should 
tell  him,  and  to  deliver  thirty  more  during  the 
day.  The  brick  contractor  had  made  a  similar 
contract,  and  the  Hme  contractor  another.  My 
maistry  had  agreed  with  his  whole  staff  of  work- 
men to  be  on  hand  at  the  first  dawn  of  day  and 
work  right  through  for  a  double  day's  pay;  and 
before  I  retired  that  night  my  plans  were  all  com- 
pleted and  arrangements  all  made  for  a  rapid 
stroke. 

At  day-dawn  the  whole  force  met  at  the  hos- 
pital and  marched  down  quietly  into  the  town, 
with  a  few  cart-loads  of  mortar  already  mixed; 
the  excavation  at  one  corner  of  the  front  wall  was 
rapidly  made  by  twenty  coolies;  the  thirty  cart- 
loads of  stone  were  driven  there  and  unloaded, 
and  as  the  sun  peeped  over  the  horizon  the  masons 
were  laying  the  stones  for  the  corner.  The  bricks 
and  mortar  came,  and  before  the  people  of  the 
town  were  astir  six  feet  in  length  of  the  founda- 
tion had  been  completed  and  several  courses  of 
bricks  had  been  laid  on  that,  while  the  bottom 
courses  of  stone  had  been  laid  across  the  whole 
front  and  the  excavations  for  the  side  walls  were 
rapidly  going  on. 


FREE  READING-ROOM  AT  MADANAPALLE    155 

The  people  rubbed  their  eyes  and  gazed  in 
astonishment.  What  this  meant  no  one  could 
divine.  They  knew  that  the  Brahman  had  bought 
the  lot  the  preceding  afternoon  and  at  first  sup- 
posed that  he  was  rapidly  building  a  house.  The 
maistry  refused  to  say  anything ;  the  busy  swarm 
of  workmen  did  not  know. 

By  ten  o'clock  the  front  walls  were  two  feet 
high,  and  then  I  appeared  upon  the  scene,  for  I 
had  not  been  seen  there  after  the  sun  had  risen, 
and  told  the  gathering  spectators  what  I  proposed 
to  put  there,  and  that  when  the  reading-room  was 
opened  they  themselves  would  be  very  glad  that 
they  had  been  outwitted ;  that  there  was  no  pos- 
sible way  of  stopping  me  now,  for  I  would  carry 
it  through  at  any  cost ;  that  I  held  a  registered 
deed  of  the  lot  in  my  hand,  and  the  English  chief 
magistrate  had  promised  to  see  that  I  was  not 
molested.  After  a  little  consultation  among 
themselves  they  agreed  to  refrain  from  hopeless 
interference  and  wait  and  see  what  this  new 
reading-room  would  be. 

Our  EngHsh  friends,  officials  in  the  judicial, 
revenue,  engineering,  and  police  departments  who 
had  themselves  or  their  families  received  medical 
treatment  from  me,  came  forward  and  liberally 
contributed  the  funds  for  this  new  undertaking, 
and  in  an  incredibly  short  time  for  India  the 
building  of  one  story,  with  flat  masonry  roof  that 


156  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

could  not  be  burned,  was  completed  and  ready  to 
enter. 

It  stands  on  a  street  corner.  The  lot  is  only- 
twenty  feet  wide  by  forty  long.  In  the  front  is 
one  wide  door,  and  at  the  side  wide  windows  only 
four  or  five  feet  apart,  and  a  veranda  of  five  feet 
width  on  both  streets,  so  that  when  doors  and 
windows  are  all  thrown  wide  open  those  in  the 
verandas  can  hear  a  speaker  as  well  as  those  in- 
side, and  most  of  them  can  see  him. 

The  room  is  matted  with  grass  mats,  and  in  the 
center  is  a  writing-table  with  inkstands  and  writ- 
ing materials  always  ready.  Arranged  along  the 
sides  are  narrow  tables  with  newspapers  in  the 
different  languages,  magazines,  and  government 
gazettes  on  them,  together  with  a  copy  of  the 
Bible  in  each  of  the  seven  languages  more  or  less 
read  here. 

At  the  farther  end  are  two  glass- door  book- 
cases ;  the  one  filled  with  dictionaries  in  the  dif- 
ferent languages,  encyclopedias,  and  books  for 
reading,  including  works  on  history,  travels, 
poetry,  morals,  and  science,  the  most  of  them 
being  in  English,  but  including  all  I  could  lay 
my  hands  on  of  an  improving  nature  in  Telugu, 
Tamil,  Kanarese,  with  a  few  in  Hindustani, 
Marathi,  and  Sanskrit.  These  are  free  to  any 
one  to  take  and  read  when  he  pleases. 

The  other  bookcase  is  filled  with  Scriptures, 


FREE  READING-ROOM  AT  MADANAPALLE    157 

tracts,  school-books,  and  Christian  literature  in 
the  various  languages,  for  sale.  A  supply  of 
stationery  also,  and  all  requisites  for  school  use, 
are  kept ;  and  by  supplying  Christian  school-books 
here  at  cost,  or  less,  we  are  introducing  them  into 
many  a  non- Christian  school  of  this  region  in  place 
of  their  more  expensive  school-books  and  cumber- 
some olas,  or  palm-leaf  manuscript  school-books 
now  in  use. 

This  reading-room  is  opened  daily,  excepting 
Sundays,  at  2  P.M.,  and  kept  open  until  9  P.M. ; 
and  as  the  bright  light  shines  out  on  to  two  streets 
it  attracts  many  to  come  and  sit  and  read  who 
would  otherwise  sit  on  their  verandas  in  idle  talk 
or  gossip. 

On  Wednesday  evening  of  each  week  we  have 
a  Bible  lecture  here.  It  is  in  Telugu  and  is  de- 
signed to  lead  the  thinking  non-Christians  to  a 
more  intelligent  appreciation  of  the  beauties  and 
stores  of  wisdom  contained  in  God's  revealed 
Word,  and  to  more  of  a  love  for  and  reverence  of 
that  Book  of  books.  I  try  to  make  the  lecture  as 
interesting  as  I  can,  and  never  allow  myself  to  ex- 
ceed half  an  hour,  so  as  not  to  weary  them. 

Ten  minutes  before  the  time  appointed  for  the 
lecture  our  native  assistants  go  there  and  com- 
mence singing  some  of  their  beautiful  Christian 
songs  in  Telugu  melodies.  This  is  the  signal  for 
assembling,  so  that  when  I  get  there  I  always  find 


158  IN  THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

both  the  building  and  the  veranda  already  filled. 
I  then  read  the  passages  I  have  selected  from  the 
Telugu  Bible  and  lecture  from  it,  always  closing 
with  a  short  prayer  for  the  divine  blessing  on  the 
words  spoken. 

I  have  thus  far  never  once  been  interrupted  by 
talking  or  unseemly  conduct,  and  the  most  pro- 
found silence  is  observed  during  the  prayer.  The 
audience  has  averaged  over  one  hundred  and  fifty 
each  Wednesday  evening  thus  far,  and  we  cannot 
help  feeling  that  good  is  being  done. 

As  soon  as  the  building  was  completed  and 
furnished,  even  before  the  walls  were  fully  dry, 
we  sent  around  a  notice  to  the  principal  native 
gentlemen  of  the  place,  telling  them  that  on  a 
certain  evening  the  new  reading-room  would  be 
opened  and  its  purposes  and  rules  explained,  and 
inviting  all  to  be  present. 

A  number  of  English  gentlemen,  who  had 
given  us  liberal  pecuniary  aid  in  the  erection  of 
the  building,  now  gave  us  their  countenance  and 
assistance  in  the  opening  of  it,  the  joint  magis- 
trate of  the  district  making  an  address  in  English, 
which  was  interpreted  for  those  who  understood 
only  Telugu  by  the  Brahman  interpreter  of  his 
court.  The  chief  officer  of  the  revenue  settlement 
of  the  district,  an  English  gentleman,  made  an 
address  in  Telugu ;  this  was  followed  by  a  neat 
address  from  my  Brahman  friend,  telling  of  the 


FREE  READING-ROOM  AT  MADANAPALLE    159 

profit  which  he  believed  this  reading-room  would 
be  to  himself  and  them  all,  and  telling  them  why 
he  had  assisted  me  in  the  purchase  of  the  lot. 

An  address  in  Telugu  was  also  made  by  my- 
self, in  which  I  told  the  people  that,  while  this 
was  designed  as  a  means  of  intellectual  improve- 
ment, I  did  not  wish  to  disguise  the  hope  I  enter- 
tained that  it  would  prove  also  a  means  of  spiritual 
improvement  to  many  of  them  by  bringing  them 
to  the  feet  of  Him  who  is  the  Author  and  Giver 
of  spiritual  life,  even  Him  who  is  revealed  in  the 
Christian  Scriptures;  and  urged  them  to  search 
the  Scriptures  which  they  would  find,  each  in  his 
own  language,  upon  the  tables,  and  see  whether 
there  was  nothing  in  them  worthy  of  their  sincere 
acceptance.  The  building  and  verandas  were 
packed  with  attentive  listeners,  and  many  stood 
in  the  street  within  hearing,  unable  to  get  into 
even  the  veranda. 

Our  record  shows  that  the  number  who  avail 
themselves  of  the  privileges  of  the  reading-room 
has  thus  far  averaged  not  less  than  ninety  a  day. 
Some  come  just  to  look  at  the  Madras  daily  news- 
papers or  the  government  gazettes,  others  to  read 
historical  works,  others  to  consult  the  dictionaries, 
atlases,  and  books  of  reference,  while  many,  after 
finishing  the  work  for  which  they  came,  will 
quietly  take  up  and  read  a  copy  of  the  Bible,  and 
often  purchase  Scriptures  or  portions  of  Scripture 


1  GO  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

in  their  own  languages  or  in  English,  to  take  away 
and  examine  at  their  own  houses.  Scarcely  a  day 
passes  without  more  or  less  tracts  or  Scriptures 
being  sold. 

A  very  singular  address  by  a  Brahman  gentle- 
man has  just  been  made  in  the  reading-room,  of 
which  I  must  give  a  report  in  the  next  chapter. 


XIV 

A  BRAHMAN   ON   THE  BIBLE 

An  incident  occurred  this  (Wednesday)  even- 
ing in  our  new  reading-room,  which  has  made  a 
profound  impression  on  my  mind. 

On  each  Wednesday  evening  we  have  here  a 
lecture  on  the  Bible,  designed  for  educated  non- 
Christian  audiences.  A  parable,  a  miracle,  a  biog- 
raphy, a  sermon  of  Christ,  a  historical  account, 
as  of  the  creation,  the  deluge,  Joseph  in  Egypt, 
the  exodus,  a  prophecy  of  the  Old  Testament  and 
its  fulfilment  in  the  New,  is  taken  up  and  illus- 
trated. While  it  is  endeavored  to  make  the  lec- 
ture attractive  as  a  literary  treat,  the  bearing  of 
the  subject  on  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  and  His 
salvation  is  never  lost  sight  of.  This  evening  my 
subject  was,  "The  law  of  the  Lord  is  perfect," 
showing  the  sufficiency  of  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures, but  the  insufficiency  of  the  Hindu  Vedas, 
to  make  the  soul  of  sinful  man  at  peace  with  holy 
God. 

At  the  close  of  the  lecture,  which  was  atten- 
101 


162  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

tively  listened  to  by  an  audience  of  one  hundred 
and  eighty,  composed  of  Brahmans,  merchants, 
farmers,  artisans,  officials,  and  students,  and  which 
I  concluded  with  a  short  prayer,  as  I  took  my  hat 
to  come  away,  a  Brahman,  one  of  the  best  edu- 
cated in  the  place,  arose  and  politely  asked  per- 
mission to  say  a  few  words.  I,  of  course,  as 
politely  assented  and  took  my  seat  again,  think- 
ing that  he  probably  was  designing  to  attack  the 
position  that  I  had  taken,  and  I  said  to  myself,  "  I 
shall  have  a  sharp  discussion  with  this  man,  for 
he  is  one  of  the  most  learned  men  in  the  place  and 
a  ready  speaker;  but  I  have  reserve  ammunition 
in  abundance  on  this  topic,  which  I  must  bring 
forward  and  stand  to  my  guns." 

To  my  surprise,  however,  in  a  neat  address  of 
ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  couched  in  choice  and 
ornate  language  and  with  apt  illustrations,  he 
urged  upon  his  fellow-citizens  the  importance  of 
availing  themselves  of  the  advantages  offered  for 
their  intellectual  and  moral  advancement  by  this 
reading-room,  and  in  conclusion  gave  the  follow- 
ing remarkable  testimony  to  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures. He  spoke  in  Telugu,  but  it  made  such  an 
impression  on  my  mind  that  I  have  come  home 
and  written  it  off  in  as  accurate  a  translation  as 
possible  into  English.      It  was  as  follows : 

"  Behold  that  mango-tree  on  yonder  roadside! 
Its  fruit  is  approaching  to  ripeness.    Bears  it  that 


A  BRAHMAN  ON   THE  BIBLE  163 

fruit  for  itself  or  for  its  own  profit?  From  the 
moment  the  first  ripe  fruits  turn  their  yellow  sides 
toward  the  morning  sun  until  the  last  mango  is 
pelted  off,  it  is  assailed  with  showers  of  sticks  and 
stones  from  boys  and  men  and  every  passer-by, 
until  it  stands  bereft  of  leaves,  with  branches 
knocked  off,  bleeding  from  many  a  broken  twig ; 
and  piles  of  stone  underneath,  and  clubs  and 
sticks  lodged  in  its  boughs,  are  the  only  trophies 
of  its  joyous  crop  of  fruit.  Is  it  discouraged  ? 
Does  it  cease  to  bear  fruit  ?  Does  it  say,  *  If  I 
am  barren  no  one  will  pelt  me  and  I  shall  live  in 
peace  '  ?  Not  at  all.  The  next  season  the  bud- 
ding leaves,  the  beauteous  flowers,  the  tender 
fruit,  again  appear.  Again  it  is  pelted  and  broken 
and  wounded,  but  goes  on  bearing,  and  chil- 
dren's children  pelt  its  branches  and  enjoy  its 
fruit. 

"  That  is  a  type  of  these  missionaries.  I  have 
watched  them  well  and  have  seen  what  they  are. 
What  do  they  come  to  this  country  for?  What 
tempts  them  to  leave  their  parents,  friends,  and 
country  and  come  to  this,  to  them  an  unhealthy, 
climate?  Is  it  for  gain  or  for  profit  that  they 
come  ?  Some  of  us  country  clerks  in  government 
offices  receive  more  salary  than  they.  Is  it  for 
the  sake  of  an  easy  life  ?  See  how  they  work,  and 
then  tell  me.  No;  they  seek,  hke  the  mango- 
tree,  to  bear  fruit  for  the  benefit  of  others,  and 


164  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

this,  too,  though  treated  with  contumely  and 
abuse  from  those  they  are  benefiting. 

"  Now  look  at  this  missionary !  He  came  here 
a  few  years  ago,  leaving  all  and  seeking  only  our 
good.  He  has  met  with  cold  looks  and  suspicious 
glances,  and  was  shunned,  avoided,  and  maligned. 
He  sought  to  talk  with  us  of  what  he  told  us  was 
the  matter  of  most  importance  in  heaven  or  earth, 
and  we  would  not  listen ;  but  he  was  not  discour- 
aged. He  started  a  dispensary,  and  we  said, '  Let 
the  Pariahs  take  his  medicines ;  we  won't ; '  but  in 
the  times  of  our  sickness  and  distress  and  fear  we 
had  to  go  to  him,  and  he  heard  us.  We  com- 
plained if  he  walked  through  our  Brahman  streets  ; 
but  ere  long,  when  our  wives  and  daughters  were 
in  sickness  and  anguish,  we  went  and  begged  him 
to  come  even  into  our  inner  apartments,  and  he 
came,  and  our  wives  and  our  daughters  now  smile 
upon  us  in  health.  Has  he  made  any  money  by 
it?  Even  the  cost  of  the  medicines  has  not  been 
returned  to  him. 

"  And  now,  in  spite  of  our  opposition,  he  has 
bought  this  site,  and  built  this  beautiful  room, 
and  furnished  it  with  the  choicest  of  lore  in  many 
languages,  and  put  in  it  newspapers  and  periodi- 
cals, which  were  inaccessible  to  us  before,  bul 
which  help  us  now  to  keep  up  with  the  world 
around  us  and  understand  passing  events;  and  he 
has  placed  here  tables  to  write  on,  and  chairs  to 


A  BRAHMAN  ON   THE  BIBLE  165 

sit  on,  and  lamps  for  us  to  read  and  write  by  in 
the  evening ;  and  what  does  he  get  for  all  this  ? 
Does  he  make  money  by  this  free  reading-room? 
Why,  we  don't  even  pay  for  the  lamp-oil  consumed 
by  night  as  we  read, 

"  Now,  what  is  it  makes  him  do  all  this  for  us  ? 
//  is  his  Bible.  I  have  looked  into  it  a  good  deal 
at  one  time  and  another,  in  the  different  languages 
I  chance  to  know.  It  is  just  the  same  in  all  lan- 
guages— the  Bible.  There  is  nothing  to  compare 
with  it  in  all  our  sacred  books  for  goodness  and 
purity  and  holiness  and  love  and  for  motives  of 
action. 

"  Where  did  the  English-speaking  people  get 
all  their  intelligence  and  energy  and  cleverness 
and  power  ?  It  is  their  Bible  that  gives  it  to  them. 
And  now  they  bring  it  to  us  and  say,  '  This  is 
what  raised  us;  take  it  and  raise  yourselves.' 
They  do  not  force  it  upon  us,  as  the  Moham- 
medans did  with  their  Koran,  but  they  bring  it  in 
love,  and  translate  it  into  our  languages,  and  lay 
it  before  us  and  say,  *  Look  at  it,  read  it,  examine 
it,  and  see  if  it  is  not  good.*  Of  one  thing  I  am 
convinced :  do  what  we  will,  oppose  it  as  we  may, 
it  is  the  Christians'  Bible  that  will,  sooner  or  later, 
work  the  regeneration  of  this  land." 

I  could  not  but  be  surprised  at  this  testimony 
thus  borne.  How  far  the  speaker  was  sincere  I 
cannot  tell;  he  had  every  appearance  of  a  man 


166  IN  THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

speaking  his  earnest  convictions.  Some  three 
years  ago  I  had  attended  in  his  zenana  his  second 
wife,  a  beautiful  girl,  through  a  dangerous  illness, 
and  I  knew  that  he  felt  very  grateful ;  but  I  was 
not  prepared  to  see  him  come  out  before  such  an 
audience  with  such  testimony  to  the  power  and 
excellency  of  the  Bible.  My  earnest  prayer  is 
that  not  only  his  intellect  may  be  convinced,  but 
that  his  heart  may  be  reached  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  that  he  and  many  like  him  may  soon  become 
earnest  followers  of  Jesus  the  Christ. 


XV 

THE  VILLAGE   MAGISTRATE'S   DEATH 

At  the  Wednesday  evening  biblical  lectures  for 
non- Christians  at  our  free  reading-room  there  was 
one  countenance  that  we  always  expected  to  see. 

The  grama  reddi,  or  village  magistrate,  Musa- 
lappa  by  name,  always  came  early  and  took  his 
seat  by  the  second  window  on  the  right  from  the 
speaker's  desk.  He  listened  with  apparent  plea- 
sure to  the  preliminary  gospel  song  service,  and 
when  the  speaker  rose  to  read  from  the  Christians' 
Bible  and  to  give  a  lecture  on  the  passage  read, 
be  it  a  parable,  a  miracle,  a  history,  a  prophecy, 
a  sermon  of  our  Lord,  the  fixedness  of  his  atten- 
tion always  attracted  the  notice  of  the  speaker, 
and  his  reverent  mien  during  the  concluding 
prayer  made  one  feel  that  he  was  silently  joining 
in  its  petitions. 

He  was  a  cousin  of  the  man  whose  hand  and 

arm  had  been  so  fearfully  crushed  under  the  wheel 

of  the  idol-car  shortly  after  we  located  at  Madana- 

palle,  as  they  were  drawing  it  in  its  annual  outing 

167 


168  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

late  at  night.  He  was  one  of  those  who  ran  to 
my  house  and  waked  me  and  begged  me  to  come 
and  see  if  I  could  save  the  man's  life,  for  he  was 
dying  with  nervous  shock  and  loss  of  blood.  The 
man's  life  was  saved ;  the  ten  fractures  in  his 
fingers,  hand,  and  forearm  were  set  and  united, 
so  that  he  again  had  the  use  of  his  right  hand  ;  and 
neither  he  nor  his  brothers  or  cousins  ever  joined 
again  in  those  heathen  festivities,  and  some  of 
them  were  often  seen  at  our  Sabbath  services  in 
church. 

Musalappa  was  one  of  them.  When  the  read- 
ing-room was  opened  and  the  weekly  biblical 
lectures  for  non- Christians  were  begun,  he  seemed 
to  be  glad  to  have  a  chance  to  listen  to  Christian 
teaching  without  mingling  in  a  Christian  congre- 
gation and  drawing  on  himself  the  adverse  criti- 
cism of  his  coreligionists. 

He  was  a  very  quiet,  sedate,  reticent  man, 
whose  character  was  respected  by  all.  His  atten- 
tive, earnest  countenance,  both  in  our  church  on 
his  occasional  attendance  there  and  weekly  at  the 
reading-room,  made  me  feel  that  the  truth  was 
gaining  an  entrance  to  his  mind  and  heart.  He 
seemed  to  avoid  giving  me  any  chance  to  speak 
to  him  personally,  and  I  was  content  to  let  him 
continue  to  drink  in  the  truth  weekly  at  our  ser- 
vices, fearing  that  he  would  be  driven  away  if  I 
personally  pressed  the  truth  home. 


THE  VILLAGE  MAGISTRATE'S  DEATH       169 

A  year  had  passed  from  the  opening  of  the 
reading-room.  In  August  of  last  year,  1871, 
there  was  an  epidemic  of  cholera,  and  of  small- 
pox at  the  same  time,  and  a  number  of  cases  of 
typhoid  fever  in  the  town.  My  assistant  in  the 
hospital  was  absent  on  a  vacation  and  I  was 
driven  with  work  beyond  measure. 

One  morning,  as  I  was  sitting  at  the  dispens- 
ing-table in  the  hospital,  Musalappa  came  in  and 
sank  upon  a  seat  exhausted.  I  saw  that  he  was 
very  ill  and  went  to  him  at  once.  He  said  he 
had  been  very  sick  for  a  week  or  more ;  that  he 
had  asked  his  "brothers — for  they  and  their  fami- 
lies all  lived  together  in  one  house  as  one  family 
— to  ask  me  to  come  and  treat  him,  or  to  bring 
him  to  the  hospital  in  a  coach  or  palanquin,  but 
they  had  absolutely  refused  and  called  in  native 
doctors ;  that  he  was  sure  he  was  fast  getting 
much  worse ;  and  that  that  morning,  when  they 
were  all  out  of  the  house,  he  had  got  up  and, 
unnoticed,  stolen  away  on  foot  to  the  hospital  for 
me  to  prescribe  for  him.  I  did  all  that  could  be 
done,  giving  him  medicines  for  the  day  and  night, 
and  sent  him  home  in  a  conveyance,  promising  to 
come  the  next  morning  to  his  house  and  see  him. 

I  was  quite  at  a  loss  to  account  for  his  family 
so  objecting  to  his  coming  to  me  for  treatment, 
as  many  of  them  have  been  to  me  for  treatment 
at  different  times. 


170  IN   THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

The  next  morning  and  daily  I  went  to  see  him, 
though  I  was  so  driven  with  work  that  I  could 
go  but  once  each  day  and  then  make  but  a  very 
brief  visit,  A  crowd  gathered  around  the  mo- 
ment I  went  into  his  room  every  time  I  called, 
and,  as  I  now  see,  seemed  to  wish  to  prevent  my 
talking  with  him  any  more  than  to  prescribe.  I 
could  not  but  notice  that  there  was  an  unusual 
commotion  about  the  house,  which  I  could  not 
explain.  It  was  typhoid  fever,  and  he  died  in 
spite  of  all  that  could  at  that  late  stage  be  done 
for  him. 

One  of  his  cousins  now  tells  me  that  during  his 
sickness  he  was  talking  continually  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  of  Christianity,  saying  that  it  was  true  and 
they  must  embrace  it;  and  I  now  think  that  it 
was  their  fear  that  he  would  openly  embrace 
Christianity  before  his  death,  and  bring  a  stigma 
on  them,  that  made  them  keep  him  so  long  from 
coming  to  me,  and  so  guarded  when  I  was 
present. 

I  spoke  to  him  generally  on  the  subject  of 
death  and  of  Him  whom  alone  we  could  trust  in 
such  an  hour,  but  did  not  press  it  home  so  per- 
sonally as  I  would  had  I  then  suspected  what  I 
now  believe  to  be  the  fact. 

When  I  spoke  to  him  of  Christ  they  prevented 
his  replying,  as  I  now  recall  to  mind.  His  cousin 
now  tells  me  that  during  the  night  before  he 


THE  VILLAGE  MAGISTRATE'S  DEATH       171 

died,  after  incoherent  talking  of  Jesus  and  His 
salvation  for  some  time,  he  suddenly  rose  to  a 
sitting  posture  in  bed  and  called  out  with  a  clear 
voice,  "The  glory  of  Jesus  Christ  is  filling  the 
whole  world,  and  we  must  all  bow  before  it.  He 
is  the  divine  Redeemer." 

And  so  he  died.  I  cannot  tell  certainly 
whether  he  was  one  of  the  spiritual  fruits  of  the 
reading-room,  whether  to  count  him  among 
Christ's  trophies,  or  not ;  but  I  rejoice  unspeak- 
ably that  "  the  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  His." 
He  will  not  overlook  any  of  His  jewels. 

I  shall  look  for  him  when,  through  the  blood 
of  that  Jesus,  I  am  permitted  to  join  the  throng 
of  the  redeemed,  for  I  trust  he  will  be  there. 


XVI 

NARASAPPA'S  mother;   or,    CHRIST'S   HIDDEN 
ONES 

Yes,  I  think  we  do  sometimes  get  glimpses  of 
some  of  Christ's  hidden  ones,  and  beHeve  that 
Narasappa's  mother  was  one  of  them. 

It  was  in  July,  1872,  that  my  tent  was  pitched 
in  yonder  mango  grove,  a  mile  from  this  place, 
Gollapalle,  where  I  am  now  encamped,  I  had 
my  dispensary  tent  and  was  endeavoring  to  imi- 
tate my  Master,  "  going  about  all  the  cities  and 
villages,  preaching  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom, 
and  healing  every  sickness  and  every  disease 
among  the  people  "  as  far  as  possible,  with  the 
use  of  remedies  and  by  the  blessing  of  God  upon 
them. 

At  sunrise  every  morning  I  went  out  to  preach 
in  some  adjacent  village,  returning  by  eight 
o'clock  to  find  my  tent  surrounded  by  patients 
waiting  for  treatment.  We  first  preached  to 
them  that  "  gospel  of  the  kingdom  "  and  then 
treated  their  diseases. 

172 


CHRIST'S  HIDDEN  ONES  173 

One  morning  my  attention  was  attracted  to  a 
nice  old  Brahman  lady,  who  had  brought  a  little 
child,  her  grandson,  for  treatment.  I  noticed  her 
listening  very  earnestly  to  the  preaching.  My 
heart  was  drawn  out  toward  her.  I  treated  the 
child,  and  told  her  to  bring  him  again  the  next 
day.  She  did,  and  for  several  mornings  after. 
She  was  always  on  hand  to  hear  the  preaching. 
I  learned  that  she  was  from  this  village  and  that 
she  was  the  mother  of  Narasappa,  one  of  the 
Brahman  village  officials.  The  child  recovered, 
and  I  lost  sight  of  her  for  the  time. 

That  was  the  year  when  the  solid  ranks  of 
heathenism  here  began  to  break  and  the  people 
of  a  number  of  villages  of  the  working  classes 
came  out  and  embraced  Christianity.  Among 
others  the  Mala  weavers  of  a  hamlet  adjacent  to 
this  village  asked  to  be  taken  under  instruction, 
giving  up  all  their  idols.     We  received  them. 

We  wanted  land  to  build  a  thatched  school- 
house  church  upon.  One  of  the  Brahman  vil- 
lage officials  helped  us  to  get  it.  I  knew  not 
why,  but  afterward  learned  that  he  was  the  son 
of  my  old  lady  friend.  A  catechist  with  a  very 
estimable  wife  was  placed  there.  Their  house 
was  midway  between  the  caste  village  and  the 
Malas'  houses.  This  old  lady  was  one  of  the  first 
to  befriend  them.  Through  her  influence  they 
were  allowed  to  draw  water  at  the  village  caste 


174  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

well,  and  received  many  other  kindnesses  through 
her  friendship.  She  always  came  and  listened 
earnestly  to  the  preaching  when  I  came  to  the 
village. 

I  was  taken  sick  and  had  to  go  to  America. 
For  three  years  this  region  was  without  a  mis- 
sionary. The  native  assistants  were  one  after 
another  drafted  off  to  meet  pressing  calls  in  the 
Tamil  field  of  our  mission.  This  place  was  left 
without  a  mission  helper.  The  famine  came  with 
its  fearful  desolation.  The  poor  Mala  weavers 
were  scattered  in  search  of  work  and  food.  After 
my  return  to  India,  in  1878,  I  came  here  to  rake 
over  the  ashes  and  see  if  there  was  any  fire  left. 
I  found  enough  to  make  me  rejoice,  and  reoccu- 
pied  the  station. 

I  saw  the  Brahman  official  who  had  been  kind 
to  us,  and  who  seemed  delighted  at  our  return. 
I  asked  for  his  mother;  she  had  died  during  the 
famine,  but  he  brought  the  little  boy  whom  I  had 
treated  to  see  me.  I  could  not  ask  of  him  the 
questions  I  wished  to  ask  about  his  mother,  but 
after  some  months  I  saw  the  catechist  who  had 
occupied  the  station  and  to  whose  wife  the  old 
Brahmanee  had  been  such  a  friend.  His  eyes 
were  moist  as  he  told  me  what  had  transpired 
with  reference  to  the  old  lady  after  I  went  to 
America. 

She  had   continued  her  friendliness  to   them 


CHRIST'S  HIDDEN  ONES  175 

openly,  and  used  secretly  to  come  to  their  house 
by  night  to  talk  of  Christ  and  His  salvation. 
Often,  he  tells  me,  late  in  the  evening,  as  they 
were  about  to  retire  and  the  streets  were  deserted 
for  the  night,  they  would  hear  a  gentle  knock  at 
their  door;  on  going  to  open  it,  they  would  find 
their  Brahman  friend. 

She  would  slip  quietly  in,  close  the  door,  and 
say,  "  Now  tell  me  some  more  of  Jesus;"  and  as 
they  finished  for  the  night,  "  Oh,  I  do  believe  in 
Him,  but  my  Brahman  son  would  kill  me  if  I 
should  break  caste  and  join  you  Christians  openly  ; 
or  if  he  did  not,  it  would  ruin  him,  for  the  other 
Brahmans  would  cast  him  out.  I  cafit  come  out 
openly  and  embrace  Christ  as  my  Saviour,  but 
you  must  let  me  come  very  often  and  hear  you 
talk  about  Him,  for  I  do  believe  in  Him." 

When  that  catechist  and  his  wife  removed  from 
the  place  the  secret  parting  was  a  very  affecting 
one.  "  For  who  will  tell  me  more  of  the  Lord  of 
life  ?  "  was  the  plaint  of  the  dear  old  Brahman 
lady.  Before  my  return  and  before  the  village 
had  again  been  occupied  by  a  mission  helper  she 
had  been  called  away;  but  our  Jesus,  He  who 
bore  our  griefs.  He  who  was  tempted  like  as  we 
are,  knew  all  about  her,  all  her  struggles,  and 
how  terrible  are  the  bonds  of  caste,  which  she 
could  not  in  her  widowed  old  age  summon  cour- 
age to  break.     I  think  of  her  whenever  I  come 


176  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

to  this  village  as  perhaps  one  of  the  fruits  of  our 
work  here,  and  I  look  forward  to  the  time  when, 
among  those  arrayed  in  white  robes,  I  may  find 
her  and  learn  that  she  was  indeed,  while  in  this 
hard  and  sinful  world,  one  of  Christ's  hidden  ones. 


XVII 

AN   AUDIENCE   OF   MONKEYS 

The  most  singular  audience  that  I  ever  saw 
gathered  to  listen  to  preaching  was  an  audience 
of  monkeys. 

When  I  first  commenced  work  in  the  region 
which  I  have  now  occupied  for  more  than  thirty 
years,  I  asked  two  fellow-missionaries  to  join  me 
in  a  preaching  tour  in  the  adjacent  taluk,  or 
county.  We  first  went  with  three  native  assis- 
tants to  the  taluk  town,  or  county-seat.  Our 
tents  were  pitched  in  a  grove  adjoining  the  town. 
We  usually  on  our  tours  went  Iwo  and  two  to 
preach  in  the  villages,  but,  this  being  the  taluk 
town  and  the  first  time  of  our  preaching  the  gos- 
pel in  that  region,  we  went  in  a  body  into  the 
native  city. 

Walking  through  the  cloth,  spice,  grain,  and 
iron  merchants'  bazaar  streets,  and  then  through 
the  goldsmiths'  and  silversmiths'  street,  around 
through  the  temple  street,  and  then  through  the 
street  of  Brahman  residences,  to  advertise  our 
177 


178  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

presence  and  incite  curiosity  to  know  what  we 
were  about,  we  finally  took  our  stand  in  the 
Brahman  street  and  all  joined  in  singing  one  of 
the  beautiful  Telugu  Christian  lyrics,  and  gath- 
ered an  audience  of  interested  listeners. 

We  stood  upon  a  little  raised  platform  on  one 
side  of  the  street  against  the  house  walls.  The 
houses  were  all  of  one  story,  joined  together  like 
a  city  block,  with  flat  roofs  and  a  low  parapet 
along  the  front  of  the  roof.  One  of  our  native 
assistants  read  a  portion  from  the  Gospels  and 
another  preached  briefly  ;  then  one  of  my  fellow- 
missionaries  followed,  preaching  more  at  length, 
while  I  watched  the  audience  to  study  the  coun- 
tenances of  the  people  among  whom  I  expected 
to  work. 

I  had  noticed  that  behind  the  houses  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  street  there  was  a  long  row 
of  trees  growing  in  their  back  yards,  the  branches 
of  which  stretched  out  over  the  flat  roofs. 

Chancing  to  raise  my  eyes,  I  noticed  many 
branches  of  these  trees  beginning  to  bend  down- 
ward toward  the  roofs,  and  saw  the  faces  of  some 
old  jack-monkeys  peering  out  through  the  foliage. 
Soon  some  of  them  jumped  down  and  came  for- 
ward to  see  what  their  "  big  brothers  "  in  the 
street  were  about  as  they  stood  gazing  so  intently 
at  these  white  men  standing  on  the  platform. 
Springing  upon  the  parapet,  they  seated  theni- 


/IN  AUDIENCE  OF  MONKEYS  179 

selves  with  their  hind  feet  hanging  over  in  front, 
and  gazing  with  fixedness  at  the  preacher  as  they 
saw  the  people  in  the  street  doing. 

Other  monkeys  followed  until  there  was  a  long 
row  of  them  thus  seated  on  the  parapet.  The 
late-comers  I  could  see  walking  along  behind  the 
parapet,  looking  for  a  place  wide  enough  to  get 
a  seat.  Failing  to  find  a  place  between  two  al- 
ready seated  monkeys  wide  enough,  they  would 
put  up  their  hands  and,  pushing  each  one  side- 
wise,  would  seem  to  be  saying,  "  Sit  along  a 
little,  please,  and  give  a  fellow  a  seat,"  until  the 
"  bench  "  was  crowded. 

The  audience  in  the  street,  standing  with  their 
backs  toward  that  row  of  houses,  did  not  notice 
the  monkeys,  and  so  their  attention  was  not  dis- 
tracted by  them ;  the  preacher  went  on  with  his 
sermon ;  the  monkeys  sat  demurely,  Ustening  as 
intently  as  the  audience  in  the  street. 

I  had  noticed  that  many  mother  monkeys  had 
brought  their  babies  to  church  with  them.  These 
little  baby  monkeys  sat  upon  the  thigh  of  the 
mother,  while  her  hand  was  placed  around  them 
in  a  very  human  fashion ;  but  the  sermon  was 
evidently  too  high  for  these  little  folks  to  com- 
prehend. Glancing  up,  I  saw  one  of  the  little 
monkeys  cautiously  reach  his  hand  around  and, 
catching  hold  of  another  baby  monkey's  tail,  give 
it  a  pull.     The  other  little  monkey  struck  back, 


180  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

but  each  mother  monkey  evidently  disapproved 
of  this  levity  in  church,  and  each  gave  its  own 
baby  a  box  on  the  ears  as  though  saying,  "  Sit 
still!  Don't  you  know  how  to  behave  in 
church?"  The  httle  monkeys,  thus  repri- 
manded, turned  the  most  solemn  faces  toward 
the  preacher  and  seemed  to  listen  intently  to 
what  he  was  saying. 

With  the  exception  of  a  monkey  now  and  then 
trying  to  catch  a  flea  that  was  biting  him  in  some 
tender  spot,  they  thus  sat  demurely  until  the 
preacher  finished  his  sermon,  and  until  we  had 
distributed  Gospels  and  tracts  among  the  audi- 
ence, and,  bidding  them  a  polite  farewell,  had 
started  for  our  tents. 

Our  "  celestial  audience,"  seeing  our  "  terres- 
trial audience "  dispersing,  then,  and  not  until 
then,  left  their  seats  and  demurely  walked  back 
and  sprang  upon  the  branches  again.  There 
were  no  "monkey  capers"  as  they  went;  they 
were  as  serious  as  a  congregation  leaving  a 
church,  and  sat  upon  the  branches  in  a  medita- 
tive mood  as  though  thinking  over  what  they  had 
heard  the  preacher  say.  And  thus  we  left  our 
unique  monkey  audience. 


XVIII 

THE   STICK-TO-IT   MISSIONARY 

I  HAVE  seen  him,  and  the  interview  did  me 
good.  I  met  him  thirty  miles  from  the  border 
of  Thibet,  when  on  my  tramp  in  Bhutan  and  in- 
dependent Sikkim  in  May,  1892.  He  is  a  Roman 
Catholic  missionary,  but  my  hour's  interview  with 
him  confirmed  the  impression  I  had  received  from 
others  that  he  was  a  godly,  evangelical,  zealous 
Christian  missionary. 

I  have  seen  other  such  evangelical  missionaries 
connected  with  the  Romish  Church.  I  met  one 
in  Jerusalem  in  1874,  with  whom  I  had  very 
many  hours  of  intimate  communion,  as  day  by 
day  he  came  to  me  and  asked  me  to  tell  him 
more  of  my  missionary  life  in  India,  of  our  op- 
portunities, our  labors,  our  trials,  our  hindrances, 
our  successes.  How  earnestly  did  he  rejoice  over 
our  successes,  in  his  joy  at  hearing  of  heathen 
brought  to  accept  of  Jesus  Christ  as  their  Sa- 
viour seeming  to  be  perfectly  oblivious  of  the  fact 
that  his  church  branded  me  as  a  heretic!  And 
181 


182  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

when,  after  a  week  of  such  pleasant  Christian  in- 
tercourse, I  left  him  to  go  on  my  journey,  he 
threw  both  arms  around  my  neck,  and  kissed  me 
on  one  cheek  and  on  the  other,  and  with  tears  in 
his  eyes  he  bade  me  good-by  until  we  should 
meet  before  the  great  white  throne,  each  with  his 
sheaves  garnered  for  the  Master. 

I  met  such  a  one  years  ago  in  India,  I  am 
thankful  to  say,  of  the  purity  and  holiness  of 
whose  Hfe  hundreds  were  ready  to  bear  loving 
testimony,  and  who  on  his  death-bed  requested 
that  he  might  see  me,  telling  his  attendant  priest 
that  he  and  that  American  missionary  had  in 
years  gone  by  had  such  pleasant  spiritual  inter- 
course, and  now  he  wished  to  see  me  once  more 
before  we  should  meet  in  those  "  many  mansions." 

Yes,  I  thank  God  that  the  Church  of  Rome, 
with  all  its  superincumbent  superstitions  and 
errors,  cannot  prevent  some  born  in  her  com- 
munion and  working  under  her  orders  from  com- 
ing out  into  the  clearer  light  and  working  for  God 
and  for  souls,  relying  solely  on  Jesus  Christ  as 
the  way  and  the  truth  and  the  liffe.  And  such  a 
one  I  think  I  found  on  the  borders  of  Thibet,  who 
had  for  thirty-six  consecutive  years  been  trying 
to  effect  an  entrance  into  that  kingdom  to  carry 
into  its  darkness  the  light  of  the  gospel. 

He  gave  me  his  history.  It  helped  me ;  it  will 
help  others.     In   1856,   thirty-six  years  before, 


THE  STICK-TO-IT  MISSIONARY  183 

Father  Andrew  D ,  having  completed  a  thor- 
ough training  in  the  schools  of  the  Propaganda, 
was  sent  out  to  India  commissioned  as  "  mission- 
ary apostolic  to  Thibet,"  and  was  directed  to  gain 
an  entrance  into  that  sealed  kingdom  from  India. 
He  came  to  DarjeeHng  and  tried  to  secure  an 
entrance,  but  was  driven  back.  He  went  to 
northwest  India,  to  the  hill  states  lying  between 
Simla  and  Afghanistan,  and  early  in  1857  suc- 
ceeded in  crossing  the  border,  but  was  arrested 
and  sent  back  to  Agra.  The  mutiny  came  on. 
He  was  foiled  in  every  attempt  to  cross  the  bor- 
der, and  came  near  losing  his  life  several  times. 

In  1858  he  received  orders  to  sail  to  Canton 
and  try  to  effect  an  entrance  through  China.  He 
went  up  the  river  from  Canton  and,  pressing  on, 
made  an  entrance,  but  was  soon  arrested  and  with 
indignities  sent  back  to  Canton.  He  spent  an- 
other year  studying  the  Thibetan  language  and 
customs,  being  joined  by  two  other  priests,  who 
were  to  go  with  him  as  his  assistants.  After  a 
year's  study,  investigation,  and  preparation,  they 
started  up  the  river  again  as  Chinese  traders, 
having  adopted  Chinese  costume  and  customs. 
As  such  they  once  more  crossed  the  border,  and 
succeeded  in  securing  a  trading  site,  and  built 
themselves  a  house.  They  spent  three  years  un- 
questioned, carrying  on  trade  as  a  bUnd,  but  busy- 
ing themselves  night  and  day  in  studying  the 


184  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

language  and  the  people  and  making  tentative 
translations  of  the  Gospels  into  Thibetan. 

At  last  they  were  suspected ;  they  were  found 
out.  A  squad  of  Thibetan  soldiery  came  by 
order,  and  tore  down  their  house  before  their 
eyes,  and,  handcuffing  them,  marched  them  across 
the  border  into  China.  They  crossed  the  river 
which  divides  Thibet  proper  from  Chinese  Thibet, 
and  were  for  carrying  them  on  farther;  but  the 
missionaries  refused  to  go  farther,  declaring  that 
they  were  now  within  Chinese  jurisdiction,  and 
defying  the  Thibetan  soldiery  to  force  them  far- 
ther. After  a  time  the  soldiery  gave  way  and 
retired  to  their  own  country. 

Father  Andrew  and  his  companions  at  once 
erected  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  looking  across 
into  Thibet,  a  mission  house  and  an  orphanage 
and  a  press,  and  gathered  in  Thibetan  boys  to 
train  and  Christianize.  Word  came  from  the 
home  authorities  with  reinforcements,  large  ones, 
and  funds,  and  Father  Andrew  built  eleven  mis- 
sion houses  and  had  fourteen  priests  under  his 
supervision,  all  working  for  Thibet,  though  not  in 
it.  An  uprising  took  place.  Their  eleven  houses 
were  torn  down  and  their  schools  scattered. 
Quietly  he  went  to  work  and  built  in  other  places, 
still  on  the  border,  but  in  vain  endeavoring  to 
get  in. 

The  powers  at  home  then  sent  him  orders. 


THE  STICK-TO-IT  MISSIONARY  185 

after  fourteen  years  of  unsuccessful  effort  to  get 
in  from  China,  to  try  India  once  more,  and  leav- 
ing the  superintendency  of  the  China  mission  in 
other  hands,  he  sailed  once  more  to  Calcutta, 
and  going  up  into  the  kingdom  of  Bhutan  en- 
deavored to  get  into  Thibet  from  there.  Again 
was  he  arrested  and  sent  back  into  British  India. 

After  various  other  unsuccessful  attempts  to 
enter  Thibet  from  different  points  in  the  Hima- 
layas, convinced  at  length  that  the  time  was  not 
yet,  he  went  up  to  the  newly  acquired  British 
territory  wedging  in  between  the  kingdom  of 
Bhutan  and  the  kingdom  of  Sikkim,  and  built  a 
mission  house  there  on  the  traders'  route  between 
Lhassa  (Thibet)  and  Calcutta,  and  within  thirty 
miles  of  the  border  of  Thibet,  and  established  a 
school  for  training  boys  in  the  Thibetan  language 
and  preparing  them  to  enter  Thibet  as  an  army- 
corps  so  soon  as  it  should  be  open.  There  he 
has  been  for  the  last  twelve  years.  It  is  a  halt- 
ing-place for  Thibetan  traders,  who  bring  down 
thousands  of  horse-loads  of  wool  for  the  Calcutta 
market,  and  week  by  week  he  talks  with  and 
preaches  to  these  coming  and  going  traders,  and 
is  trying  to  perfect  himself  in  the  dialects  of  all 
the  different  provinces  of  Thibet  from  which  the 
traders  come. 

There  I  found  him ;  there  he  poured  into  my 
ear,  as  that  of  a  sympathizing  fellow- missionary, 


186  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

the  story  of  his  life,  an  epitome  of  which  I  have 
given.  He  is  now  a  gray-haired,  emaciated  man 
of  sixty-two,  but  as  full  of  enthusiasm  for  carry- 
ing the  gospel  into  Thibet  as  when  he  arrived  in 
Darjeeling  thirty-six  years  ago;  and  his  bright 
eyes  kindled  as  he  told  me  of  the  effort  of  his  life, 
yet  to  be  successful,  because  the  work  is  of  God 
and  not  of  man. 

He  brought  and  laid  in  my  lap,  the  fruit  of 
twenty  years'  toil,  a  Thibetan-Latin  dictionary  of 
seven  hundred  pages  of  manuscript  in  his  own 
handwriting,  saying  that  this  was  the  fifth  and 
final  revision, — the  fifth  time  that  he  had  written 
it  all  out  with  his  own  pen, — and  that  now,  under 
orders  from  the  Propaganda,  he  was  just  about 
going  to  Hong  Kong,  where  they  have  a  fine 
Thibetan  press,  to  carry  the  dictionary  through 
the  press,  that  it  might  be  a  help  to  those  mis- 
sionaries of  all  nationalities  who  should  enter 
Thibet,  though  perhaps  he  might  not  live  to 
do  so. 

But,  best  of  all,  he  had  also  in  manuscript  a 
perfected  translation  of  the  Gospel  of  John,  which, 
in  connection  with  his  intercourse  with  the  traders 
and  travelers  from  all  Thibet,  he  had  been  put- 
ting into  such  clear  and  idiomatic  language  as  to 
be  understood  of  all  the  people,  which  he  was 
going  immediately  to  print,  so  that,  if  he  could 
not  go  into  Thibet  himself,  he  could  send  hun- 


THE  STICK-TO-IT  MISSIONARY  187 

dreds  of  these  Gospels  in  by  return  traders,  and 
so  let  the  people  of  secluded  Thibet  know  of 
Him  who  is  the  way  and  the  truth  and  the  life. 

"  Ah,"  said  I  to  myself,  as  he  showed  me  and 
told  me  this,  "  even  a  Roman  Catholic  missionary, 
who  chooses  the  Gospel  of  John  first  to  translate 
and  scatter  among  the  people, — that  gospel  that 
makes  the  most  of  the  divinity  and  all-sufficiency 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  has  the  least  to  say  of  the  Vir- 
gin Mary, — cannot  but  be  a  co-worker  in  bring- 
ing all  these  kingdoms  into  the  one  kingdom  of 
Christ!" 

What  a  lesson  to  some  of  us  who  complain  of 
slow  work  and  little  success!  Thirty-six  years 
of  foiled  effort,  and  yet  enthusiastic  and  hopeful 
as  ever.     God  give  us  such  stick- to-it-iveness! 


XIX 

UNHAT'CHABLE   INK-BOTTLES;    OR,  TAUGHT 
BY   A   HEN 

Yes,  I  have  been  taught  by  a  hen  this  week, 
and  the  lesson  has  done  me  good. 

You  must  know  that  the  hens  in  India  are 
members  of  the  family.  They  live  in  the  houses 
of  the  Hindus  as  much  as  the  children.  They 
feel  perfectly  at  home,  and  the  children  pick  them 
up  in  their  arms  as  we  would  a  kitten,  and  they 
have  no  hesitation  in  laying  an  egg  in  the  best 
place  in  the  house  they  can  find.  I  have  known 
of  a  native  gentleman  who  took  off  his  gold-bor- 
dered gauze  turban  and  carefully  placed  it  upside 
down  on  a  mat  in  the  corner  of  the  room  while 
he  was  eating  his  dinner,  and  when  he  rose  and 
wished  to  put  the  turban  on  quickly,  he  found 
the  pet  hen  quietly  sitting  in  it,  laying  an  egg. 

But  to  return  to  my  lesson.  One  of  my  young 
native  assistants  came  in  from  his  village,  six 
miles  out,  where  he  is  endeavoring  to  instruct  a 
188 


UNHATCHABLE  INK-BOTTLES  189 

congregation  of  those  who  have  lately  renounced 
heathenism  and  placed  themselves  under  Chris- 
tian instruction,  and  presented  the  diary  of  his 
month's  work  for  my  inspection.  For  we  wish  to 
know  in  how  many  and  in  which  of  the  surround- 
ing heathen  villages  each  native  assistant  has 
preached  during  the  month,  what  chapters  he  has 
read  and  expounded  to  the  new  Christians  at 
daily  evening  prayers  in  the  school-house,  and  so 
on,  in  order  that  we  may  give  the  better  counsel 
and  direction  for  the  next  month.  His  diary  was 
this  time  written  in  three  different  colors  of  ink. 
I  asked  the  reason. 

"  Well,  sir,"  said  he,  "  you  see  our  pet  hen  was 
determined  to  sit." 

"Well,  what  then?" 

"  Why,  we  would  not  let  her,  and  kept  all  the 
eggs  out  of  her  reach." 

"  Yes  ;  go  on." 

"  Well,  sir,  one  morning — it  was  the  loth,  for 
you  see  the  color  of  the  ink  changes  then — I 
came  in  from  my  morning  preaching  in  a  heathen 
village  a  mile  north,  and  found  that  that  hen  had 
come  in  while  my  wife  was  in  the  kitchen,  and 
jumped  on  to  my  low  writing-desk,  and  scratched 
off  the  small  brownstone  ink-bottle  into  a  corner. 
The  ink  had  all  run  out ;  but  there  she  was  sit- 
ting on  that  bottle,  determined  to  hatch  that  if 
we  would  not  give  her  eggs.     I  had  to  fight  to 


190  IN  THE  TIGER.  JUNGLE 

get  it  away  from  her,  she  was  so  resolved  to  sit 
on  it.  The  ink  was  all  gone,  and  as  I  had  no 
more  black  ink  I  had  to  use  blue." 

"  Well,"  said  I,  laughing,  "  how  is  it  that  a 
week  later  you  changed  again  to  red  ?  " 

"  Why,  you  see,  sir,  I  kept  the  blue-ink  bottle 
hung  up  on  the  wall  out  of  reach  for  a  week,  till 
I  thought  she  had  forgotten  about  it.  At  all 
events,  I  forgot,  and  went  out  one  day  and  left 
this  bottle  open  on  the  desk,  just  as  I  had  been 
using  it.  And,  sir,  when  I  came  back,  there  was 
the  old  hen  with  this  ink-bottle  under  her  in  the 
same  corner  as  before,  and  a  streak  of  blue  ink 
on  the  floor  all  the  way  up  to  the  corner,  and  the 
bottle  empty.  I  had  nothing  but  red  ink  left  in 
the  house,  and  so  I  had  to  use  that  until  I  could 
come  in  here  and  get  some  more  black  ink." 

"  Well,"  said  I,  laughing  again,  "  what  have 
you  done  with  the  old  hen?" 

"  Why,  we  thought  that  if  she  was  so  deter- 
mined to  sit  we  had  better  furnish  her  eggs  to  sit 
on.  She  is  sitting  on  seven  eggs  in  that  very 
corner  now." 

"  Well,"  said  I,  "  she  gained  her  point  by  a  firm 
persistence  in  attempting  to  do  her  duty  accord- 
ing to  the  light  she  had ;  and  it  is  a  lesson  that 
you  and  I  may  well  heed  for  ourselves." 

I  have  thought  it  over  a  good  deal  since  and 
I  keep  extracting  comfort  from  it.     We  mission- 


UNHATCHABLE  INK-BOTTLES  191 

aries  here  in  India  have  some  very  poor  material 
to  work  upon,  and  some  that  seems  to  our  eyes 
promising,  and  we  do  not  know  that  it  will  not 
spring  into  life  any  more  than  Mistress  Hen  com- 
prehended the  fact  that  the  ink-bottles  would  not 
hatch.  We  work  on  with  zeal  and  earnestness; 
the  Master  sees  our  persistent  effort,  knows  that 
it  is  perhaps  fruitless  on  that  material,  and  honors 
our  purpose  of  service  to  Him  by  substituting 
more  promising  material. 

There  is  a  village  of  people  fifteen  miles  from 
here  for  whose  conversion  I  have  worked  hard 
for  some  years.  I  did  think  them"  promising,  but 
they  remain  still  unmoved  and  now  seem  almost 
as  though  they  had  no  germ  of  life  in  them ;  but 
we  have  worked  on.  To-day  comes  in  word 
from  five  families,  living  a  mile  north  of  them, — 
of  a  higher  caste  and  of  much  more  intelligence, 
but  among  whom  we  had  not  worked  except 
casually, — saying  that  they  wish  to  embrace  the 
religion  of  Jesus  and  be  taught  to  follow  Him. 
"  Yes,"  said  I,  when  the  news  reached  me,  "  we 
have  been,  in  our  ignorance,  perseveringly  sitting 
on  ink-bottles,  and  now  God  has  given  us  eggs." 

Does  not  many  an  earnest  minister  in  Christian 
lands  labor  and  pray  and  yearn  for  the  conversion 
of  certain  individuals  in  his  flock?  And  though 
these  perchance  remain  cold  and  hard  and  lifeless, 
does  not  God  often  honor  their  earnest  labor  by 


192  IN  THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

sending  to  them  other  souls  as  seekers,  of  whom 
perhaps  they  have  never  thought? 

How  many  lessons  have  I  drawn  from  this  in- 
cident for  my  own  encouragement  during  the 
past  week !  But  I  will  not  delay  to  recount  them. 
Every  one  who  reads  this  story  will  be  able  to 
draw  from  it,  perhaps,  the  very  lessons  which  he 
most  needs,  Paul  well  summarizes  one  chief  les- 
son when  he  says,  "  Let  us  not  be  weary  in  well- 
doing :  for  in  due  season  we  shall  reap,  if  we  faint 
not." 

"  Sow  in  the  morn  thy  seed ; 
At  eve  hold  not  thy  hand ; 
To  doubt  and  fear  give  thou  no  heed ; 
Broad  cast  it  o'er  the  land. 

"  Thou  canst  not  toil  in  vain ; 

Cold,  heat,  the  moist  and  dry, 
Shall  foster  and  mature  the  grain 
For  gamers  in  the  sky." 


XX 

WINDING   UP   A   HORSE 

Many  years  ago  I  bought  In  Madras  a  peculiar 
kind  of  horse ;  he  had  to  be  wound  up  to  make 
him  go. 

It  was  not  a  machine,  but  a  veritable  live  horse. 
When  breaking  him  to  go  in  the  carriage  he  had 
been  injured.     An  accident  occurred  in  starting 
him  the  first  time,  and  he  was  thrown  and  hurt 
and  frightened.     It  made  him    timid,   afraid  to 
start.     After  he  had  once  started  he  would  never 
balk  until  taken  out  of  the  carriage.     He  would 
start  and  stop  and  go  on  as  many  times  as  you 
pleased,  but  it  was  very  difficult  to  get  him  started 
at  first  each  time  he  was  harnessed  to  the  carriage. 
He  was  all  right  under  the  saddle,  an  excellent 
riding  horse,  and  would  carry  me  long  distances 
in  my  district  work,  so  that  I  did  not  wish  to  dis- 
pose of  him  ;  but  I  could  not  afford  to  keep  two ; 
whatever  I  had  must  go  in  carriage  as  well  as  ride, 
and  I  determined  that  I  would  conquer. 

How  I  hdve  worked  over  that  horse !      At  first 
193 


194  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

it  sometimes  took  me  an  hour  to  get  him  started 
from  my  door.  At  last,  after  trying  everything 
I  had  ever  heard  of,  I  hit  upon  an  expedient  that 
worked. 

I  took  a  strong  bamboo  stick  two  feet  long  and 
over  an  inch  thick.  A  stout  cord  loop  was  passed 
through  a  hole  two  inches  from  its  end  ;  this  loop 
we  would  slip  over  his  left  ear  down  to  the  roots, 
and  turn  the  stick  round  and  round  and  twist  it  up. 

It  is  said  that  a  horse  can  retain  but  one  idea 
at  a  time  in  its  small  brain.  Soon  the  twisting 
would  begin  to  hurt;  his  attention  would  be  ab- 
stracted to  the  pain  in  his  ear;  he  would  forget 
all  about  a  carriage  being  hitched  to  him,  bend 
down  his  head,  and  walk  off  as  quiet  as  a  lamb. 
When  he  had  gone  a  rod  the  horse-boy  would 
begin  to  untwist,  soon  off  would  come  the  cord, 
and  the  horse  would  be  all  right  for  the  day.  The 
remedy  never  failed. 

After  having  it  on  two  or  three  times  he  ob- 
jected to  the  operation,  and  would  spring  about 
and  rear  and  twitch  and  back,  anything  but  start 
ahead,  to  keep  it  from  being  applied.  We  would 
have,  two  of  us,  to  begin  to  pat  and  rub  about 
his  neck  and  head ;  he  would  not  know  which 
had  the  key ;  all  at  once  it  would  be  on  his  ear 
and  winding  up.  The  moment  it  began  to  tighten 
he  would  be  quiet,  stand  and  bear  it  as  long  as 
he  could,  and  then  off  he  would  go. 


IV IN  DING  UP  A  HORSE  195 

It  never  took  thirty  seconds  to  get  him  off  with 
the  key ;  it  would  take  an  liour  without.  After 
a  Httle  he  ceased  objecting  to  have  it  put  on ;  he 
seemed  to  say  to  himself,  "  I  have  got  to  give  in 
and  may  as  well  do  it  at  once ;  "  but  he  would 
not  start  without  the  key.  In  a  few  months  he 
got  so  that  as  soon  as  we  got  into  the  carriage  he 
would  bend  dozvn  his  head  to  have  the  key  put  on, 
and  one  or  two  turns  of  the  key  would  be  enough. 

Then  the  key  became  unnecessary.  He  would 
bend  down  his  head,  tipping  his  left  ear  to  the 
horse-boy,  who  would  take  it  in  his  hand  and 
twist  it,  and  off  he  would  go. 

My  native  neighbors  said,  "  That  horse  must 
be  wound  up  or  he  cannot  run;  "  and  it  seemed 
to  be  so. 

When  he  got  so  that  the  "  winding  up  "  was 
nothing  but  a  form,  I  tried  to  break  him  of  that, 
but  could  not  succeed.  I  would  pat  him  and  talk 
to  him  and  give  him  a  little  salt  or  sugar  or  bread, 
and  then  step  quietly  into  the  carriage  and  tell 
him  to  go.  No.  Coax  him.  No.  Whip  him. 
No.  Legs  braced,  every  muscle  tense  for  resis- 
tance ;  a  genuine  balk.  Stop  and  keep  quiet  for 
an  instant,  and  he  would  hold  down  his  head,  bend 
over  his  ear,  and  look  around  for  the  horse-boy 
appealingly,  saying  very  earnestly  by  his  actions, 
"  Do  please  wind  me  up;  I  can't  go  without,  but 
I'll  go  gladly  if  you  will."     The  moment  his  ear 


196  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

was  touched  and  one  twist  given,  off  he  would 
go  as  happy  and  contented  as  ever  horse  could 
be. 

Many  hearty  laughs  have  we  and  our  friends 
had  over  the  winding  up  of  that  horse.  If  I 
were  out  on  a  tour  for  a  month  or  two  and  he 
was  not  hitched  to  the  carriage,  or  if  he  stood  in 
the  stable  with  no  work  for  a  week  or  two  dur- 
ing the  monsoon,  a  real  winding  up  had  to  take 
place  the  first  time  he  was  put  in.  We  kept  him 
six  years.  The  last  week  I  owned  him  I  had  to 
wind  him  up.  I  sold  the  patent  with  the  horse, 
and  learned  from  the  man  that  bought  him  that 
he  had  to  use  it  as  long  as  the  horse  lived. 

I  was  thinking  about  that  horse  the  other  night, 
when  it  was  too  hot  to  sleep,  and  I  suddenly  burst 
into  a  laugh  as  I  said  to  myself,  "  I  have  again 
and  again,  in  the  membership  of  our  churches  at 
home,  seen  that  horse,  that  had  to  be  wound  up 
in  all  matters  of  benevolence." 

I  had  often  thought  of  that  horse  as  I  went 
through  our  churches  at  home  in  my  visit  to 
America  in  1876,  and  imagined  that  I  recognized 
him ;  but  the  whole  thing  came  upon  me  with 
such  peculiar  force  the  other  night  that  I  must 
write  out  my  thoughts. 

There  are  some  Christians — yes,  I  believe  they 
are  Cliristians — who  have  to  be  wound  up  by 
some  external  pressure  before  they  will  start  off 


IV IN  DING   UP  A  HORSE  197 

zn  any  work,  of  benevolence.  Others  will  engage 
in  some  kinds  of  benevolence  spontaneously,  but 
will  not  touch  other  benevolent  efforts  unless 
specially  wound  up.  Free  under  the  saddle,  but 
balky  in  carriage. 

I  knew  of  one  good  member  of  our  church  who 
would  never  give  a  cent  to  our  Home  Missionary 
Board  unless  he  happened  to  hear  of  some  mis- 
sionary in  the  West  who  was  actually  without 
the  necessaries  of  life,  and  then  he  would  send 
in  liberally.     It  took  that  to  wind  him  up. 

Another  would  never  give  to  the  board  for 
educating  young  men  for  the  ministry  unless  he 
happened  to  become  acquainted  with  some  can- 
didate who  was  being  aided  ;  then  his  gifts  would 
come  in  for  helping  that  young  man. 

Another  would  never  give  to  the  Bible  Soci- 
ety unless  he  chanced  to  hear  of  some  particular 
town  out  West  where  but  two  Bibles  could  be 
found  in  a  population  of  five  hundred,  although 
he  knew  perfectly  well  that  there  were  hundreds 
of  such  communities,  among  whom  the  Ameri- 
can Bible  Society  was  daily  endeavoring  to  intro- 
duce the  divine  Word.  He  must  be  wound  up 
by  a  special  case. 

But  it  was  especially  of  my  visits  through  the 
churches  in  connection  with  our  foreign  mission- 
ary work  that  I  was  thinking  when  I  said  that  I 
had  so  often  recognized  my  horse  that  had  to 


198  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

be  wound  up  in  all  the  different  stages  of  his 
training. 

Thank  God,  I  found  hosts  of  noble-hearted 
men  and  women  all  through  the  church,  that 
needed  no  winding  up;  whose  conversion  and 
consecration  had  extended  down  to  their  pockets; 
who  were  always  at  the  forefront  in  every  good 
work;  who  required  no  spasmodic  appeals. 
They  give  from  a  deep-se.t  principle  and  an  in- 
telligent love  for  Christ  and  His  cause,  some 
even  pinching  themselves  in  the  necessaries  of 
life,  as  I  know,  to  be  able  to  give.  It  is  on  such 
that  the  security  and  continuance  of  our  missions 
depend.  We  know  that  we  can  rely  on  them ; 
they  never  fail  us. 

But  there  are  others  that  have  to  be  "  wound 
up,"  willingly  or  unwillingly,  before  they  will  do 
anything  in  the  missionary  work.  Some  are  very 
willing  to  be  wound  up. 

"  Domine,"  said  a  good  elder  who  had  just 
introduced  himself  to  me  one  day,  "  I  have  come 

in  on  behalf  of  our  church  at '  to  see  if  you 

would  not  come  out  and  give  us  a  missionary 
talk.  We  ought  to  have  sent  in  a  collection  to 
the  Foreign  Board  months  ago,  but  we  have  neg- 
lected it,  and  now  we  have  been  talking  it  over 
and  have  made  up  our  minds  to  do  something  hand- 
some if  you  will  come  out  there  and  give  u?  atalk." 

"  Well,"  said  I,  "  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  come 


tVINDING  UP  A  HORSE  199 

and  tell  you  something  of  our  work  just  as  soon 
as  I  can  edge  a  day  in  between  other  engagements. 
But  if  you  have  made  up  your  minds  to  do 
something  handsome  for  the  board,  why  not  do 
it  at  once  and  relieve  their  present  pressing  need, 
and  I  will  come  as  soon  as  I  can  and  give  you 
the  talk  all  the  same." 

"Oh  no,"  said  he;  "we  can't  do  that.  We 
have  made  up  our  minds  that  we  must  give  lib- 
erally, but  we  can  start  it  easier  if  you  come  there 
and  give  us  the  talk  first.  You  need  not  fear; 
we  will  give  a  good  sum.  That  is  settled,  and 
it  is  mostly  pledged ;  but  you  must  come  and 
talk  to  us  first." 

I  smiled  and  said  to  myself,  "  There  is  my 
horse  in  its  third  stage  of  training.  That  church 
is  bending  down  its  ear  and  entreating  me  to 
twist  it,  for  it  has  made  up  its  mind  to  go,  only 
it  requires  to  be  wound  up  first." 

"  Domine,"  said  one  of  our  earnest  ministers 
to  me,  one  Wednesday,  "  we  raised  one  thousand 
dollars  for  the  board  last  Sunday  morning.  It  is 
more  than  usual  and  we  are  all  happy  over  it. 
Now  we  want  you  to  come  over  the  first  Sunday 
of  next  month  and  give  us  a  missionary  address." 

"  Good,"  said  I ;  "  that  church  has  got  one 
stage  farther  than  my  horse  ever  did  in  his  train- 
ing; for  they  start  and  do  the  work  first,  and 
bend  down   the  ear  to  be   twisted   afterward." 


200       .  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

Did  it  not  give  me  an  earnest  joy  to  go  and  tell 
that  church  what  the  Lord's  war  in  India  was 
and  how  much  they  had  helped  it? 

A  Sunday-school  superintendent  came  to  me 
one  day  with  smiling  countenance,  saying,  "  Our 
Sunday-school  has  raised  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  dollars  during  the  past  year  for 
missions,  and  we  have  determined  to  give  it  to 
the  work  in  India.  The  year  closed  three  months 
ago  and  it  is  all  in  the  hands  of  the  treasurer; 
but  we  want  you  to  come  and  give  us  a  speech, 
and  then  it  will  be  formally  voted  and  sent  at 
once  to  the  board.  We  have  been  waiting  all 
this  time  because  they  told  us  at  the  mission 
rooms  that  you  were  engaged  up  till  now.  When 
can  you  come?  The  money  is  lying  idle  and 
we  are  waiting,  and  we  know  the  board  needs 
the  funds;  so  come  as  soon  as  you  can." 

"  Ah,"  said  I,  "  everything  is  ready,  and  the 
family  are  in  the  carriage,  but  they  have  to  sit 
there  half  an  hour  because  the  horse-boy  is  busy 
elsewhere,  and  the  horse  is  holding  down  his  ear 
all  this  time  waiting  for  that  particular  horse- 
boy to  come  and  twist  it." 

I  was  both  pained  and  irresistibly  amused  by 
an  incident  that  occurred  not  two  hundred  miles 
from  New  York,  where  the  horse  was  in  the  first 
stage  of  training  and  stoutly  resisted  allowing  its 
ear  to  be  touched. 


fVlNDING   UP  A  HORSE  201 

The  missionary  was  announced  to  speak  in  the 
church  on  a  given  Sunday,  when  the  annual  col- 
lection would  be  taken  up.  A  good  member  of 
the  church — the  pastor  says  a  sincere  Christian 
— was  very  much  put  out  about  it;  had  heard 
enough  of  these  old  missionaries  and  was  not 
going  to  hear  any  more ;  did  not  believe  in  for- 
eign missions ;  we  had  heathen  enough  at  home. 

The  appointed  Sunday  came.     Mr.  A and 

his  family  stayed  away  from  church  because  they 
would  not  countenance  the  missionary  address. 
They  therefore  missed  the  announcement  which 
the  pastor  made,  viz.,  that  a  telegram  had  been 
received  that  it  was  impossible  for  the  missionary 
to  be  there  ;  he  would  come  next  Sunday,  and  the 
annual  collection  would  be  deferred  until  then. 

The  following  Sunday  Mr.  A and  family 

all  filed  into  their  pew,  serene  and  happy  in  the 
thought  that  they  had  avoided  the  old  missionary. 
As  the  organ  was  playing  the  voluntary  the  pas- 
tor entered  the  pulpit  from  the  vestry,  and  a 
stranger  with  him.  The  pastor  took  the  opening 
exercises,  and  the  second  hymn  was  sung,  when 
the  pastor  rose  and  said  that  Mr. ,  the  mis- 
sionary, as  announced  last  Sunday,  would  now 
address  them. 

Mr.  A was  thunderstruck ;  he  did  not  like 

to  go  out  in  the  middle  of  a  service,  and  so  de- 
termined to  sit  it  through.     The  missionary  told 


^02  IN  THE  TIGER  JUHGLE 

his  simple  tale.  The  plates  came  in ;  the  collec- 
tion was   unprecedentedly   large.      Mr.  A 's 

plethoric  pocket-book  had  disgorged  itself  upon 
the  plates,  and  no  heartier  worker  for  foreign 
missions    is    found    now    in    that    church.     Mr. 

A had  tried  his  best  to  keep  his  ear  from 

being  twisted ;  now  it  needs  no  twisting ;  he  has 
learned  to  go  and  loves  to  go. 

There  was  a  church  in  our  fold  at  home  whose 
pastor  was  determined  that  it  should  not  be  wound 
up  for  foreign  missions.  He  had  succeeded,  as 
he  himself  told  me,  in  keeping  all  missionaries  and 
secretaries  and  agents  out  of  his  pulpit  during  all 
the  years  of  his  pastorate.  When  the  day  came 
for  collections  for  any  of  our  boards,  the  fact  was 
stated,  the  plates  were  passed,  and  those  gave 
who  wished.  The  collection,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  under  such  a  chill  was  a  minimum. 

It  required  some  of  the  very  best  and  most 
wary  manoeuvering  to  get  hold  of  the  ear  of  that 
church ;  but  it  was  obtained  and  twisted,  and  off 
it  started  on  the  trot  in  the  missionary  work,  and 
since  then  it  has  annually  held  down  its  ear  and 
begged  to  have  it  twisted,  as  it  wanted  to  go 
more. 

Scores  of  incidents  which  occurred  in  my  own 
experiences  among  the  churches  in  America,  and 
which  recalled  my  "  horse-winding,"  come  crowd- 
ing into  my  mind,  but  I  forbear. 


tVINDING   UP  A  HORSE  203 

For  I  remember  the  phalanx  of  noble  churches 
that  needed  no  such  winding  up,  who  were  all 
alive  and  always  on  the  alert ;  who  gave  regularly, 
generously,  nobly ;  who,  from  the  pastor,  the 
head,  to  the  humblest  member,  prayed  from  the 
lips,  from  the  heart,  from  the  pocket,  "  Thy  king- 
dom come."  They  are  always  glad  to  get  hold 
of  the  recruiting  watchman  and  ask  him,  "  Watch- 
man, what  of  the  night?"  but  they  never  have 
to  be  wound  up  to  start  them  giving. 

God  give  us  more  and  more  of  such  churches 
and  more  such  Christians  and  church-members, 
so  that  no  missionary  or  secretary  need  come  to 
beg,  but  can  come  with  radiant  countenance  and 
say,  "  Brethren,  with  the  funds  you  are  continually 
sending  us  for  the  work,  we  have  done  for  the 
Master  thus  and  thus."  Then,  in  looking  over 
our  churches  and  our  benevolent  work,  we  shall 
no  longer  have  occasion  to  remember  "  the  horse 
that  had  to  be  wound  up." 


XXI 

BAPTISM    OF   A   BRAHMAN 

A  WEEK  ago  last  Sabbath  it  was  my  privilege 
to  baptize,  in  the  Madanapalle  church,  a  young 
Brahman  of  twenty-three  years  of  age,  who  had 
been  a  seeker  for  a  year  and  a  half.  His  father 
is  a  Brahman  priest,  and  long  time  teacher  of  a 
school  in  a  town  twenty-five  miles  west  from  here. 
The  family  is  a  family  of  school-teachers,  his  elder 
brother  and  all  his  uncles  being  teachers  in  differ- 
ent towns,  and  he  himself  has  been  a  teacher  of 
payal,  or  purely  native,  schools  in  different  places. 

We  have  some  Christian  village  schools  within 
a  few  miles  of  his  town,  and  from  them  and  their 
books,  and  from  our  preaching  in  the  markets  and 
fairs  near  there,  and  from  Scriptures  and  tracts 
which  we  had  scattered,  he  had  learned  more 
about  Christianity  and  about  Christ  than  his 
friends  knew. 

One  year  ago,  after  repeated  and  earnest  talks 
with  my  colleague,  Rev.  William  I.  Chamberlain, 
and  myself,  he  had  decided  to  come  out  openly 
204 


BAPTISM   OF  A  BRAHMAN  205 

and  embrace  Christianity.  He  was  then  teaching 
in  a  school  eight  miles  southeast  of  here,  in  the 
place  of  one  of  his  uncles,  who  was  absent  on  a 
few  weeks'  leave,  and  he  promised  that  as  soon 
as  his  uncle  returned  and  released  him  he  would 
come  to  Madanapalle,  avow  publicly  his  faith  in 
Christ,  and  be  baptized.  Indeed,  the  Sabbath 
was  appointed  for  his  baptism;  but  he  did  not 
appear. 

We  for  a  time  lost  track  of  him.  He  was,  it 
seems,  induced  to  go  and  visit  an  uncle  in  the 
Mysore  kingdom,  who  was  priest  and  teacher; 
and  that  uncle  succeeded  in  keeping  him  with 
him,  on  one  pretext  and  another,  until  now.  It 
was  probably  a  part  of  the  family  plan  to  keep 
him  away  from  us  as  far  as  possible ;  for  while 
they  did  not  know  how  earnestly  he  was  seeking 
for  the  truth,  they  did  know  that  he  often  talked 
with  our  catechists  and  Christians,  and  they 
feared  that  he  might  be  inclining  toward  Chris- 
tianity. 

A  week  ago,  on  Saturday,  he  arrived  in  town 
after  his  protracted  stay  in  Mysore,  dusty  and  foot- 
sore from  his  long  journey  on  foot  by  a  circuitous 
route  to  avoid  being  intercepted  by  his  relatives, 
and  found  his  way  at  once  to  the  mission  house. 
Our  judicious  and  earnest  catechist,  John  Souri, 
met  him  in  the  street  on  his  way  to  the  house, 
and  after  a  good  talk  with  him  came  with  him  to 


206  IN   THE  TIGER.  JUNGLE 

me,  and  we  had  a  long,  close,  personal  talk  and 
prayer. 

He  was  determined  he  would  wait  no  longer. 
His  examination  for  reception  was  thoroughly 
satisfactory.  That  evening  he  cut  off  his  Brah- 
manical  tuft  of  hair  and  his  Brahmanical  cord,  and 
the  marks  of  his  deity  on  his  forehead,  which  he 
had  till  then  allowed  to  remain  to  avert  suspicion, 
were  removed,  and  he  ate  his  evening  meal  with 
the  catechist's  family  and  slept  there ;  and  on 
Sabbath  morning  at  our  early  morning  service, 
with  a  face  radiant  with  joy,  he  knelt  and  received 
the  triune  name  upon  his  forehead,  and  was  in- 
corporated into  Christ's  visible  church. 

His  old  name  had  been  the  names  of  two  of 
the  Hindu  gods.  He  asked  for  a  new  name,  and 
took  the  name  of  Yakob  John  Rayappa,  the  last 
being  the  Telugu  for  Peter,  or  "  Rock,"  as  he 
wished  it  to  be  known  that  he  would  stand  firm 
as  a  rock  in  his  new  faith. 

The  church  was  crowded,  many  non- Christians 
being  present  to  witness  the  baptism  of  a  Brah- 
man, for  it  had  become  known  outside  that  it 
would  take  place. 

It  fell  to  me  to  conduct  the  service.  I  preached 
on  "  what  Christ  has  done,  does,  and  will  do  for 
His  people."  Among  the  non- Christians  pres- 
ent was  a  Brahman  of  some  thirty  years  of  age, 
who  has  long  been   very  near  the  kingdom  of 


BAPTISM  OF  A   BRAHMAN  207 

heaven.  It  is  only  his  family  that  keeps  him 
from  coming  out  openly.  The  two  whose  at- 
tention was  most  intently — almost  painfully  in- 
tently— fixed  upon  the  whole  sermon  as  the  sub- 
ject developed  itself,  from  Christ's  determination 
in  the  eternal  counsels  to  give  Himself  to  save 
sinners  down  through  the  preparation,  through 
His  life  and  sacrificial  death  on  earth,  through 
His  mediatorial  intercessions  for  us  in  glory,  until 
the  final  and  complete  coming  of  His  kingdom, 
were  the  Brahman  who  had  just  received  bap- 
tism, and  whose  face  beamed  with  joy,  and  the 
Brahman  who  wanted,  but  dared  not  yet,  to  em- 
brace Christ  openly.  He  makes  no  secret  of  his 
belief  in  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Saviour  of  the  world, 
but  as  long  as  he  refrains  from  being  baptized  and 
breaking  his  caste  his  friends  do  not  trouble  him. 
He  is  not  satisfied  with  his  position,  and  we  are 
not ;  he  says  he  will  come  out  openly  for  Christ 
ere  long.  Earnest  and  continued  prayers  are 
needed  for  such  young  men  who  wish  to  but 
dare  not  come  out  and  take  Jesus  Christ  as  their 
Saviour.  If  effectual  prayer  is  offered  they  will 
come. 


XXII 

BfMoANi  rAmanna;  or,  unreckoned  fruits 

BfMGANI  Ramanna  is  one  who  has  been  much 
in  my  thoughts  and  in  my  prayers  for  fifteen  years. 

When  the  people  of  this  hamlet — Timmared- 
dipalle — came  over  to  Christianity  in  July,  1872, 
and  the  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  joined  hands 
in  persecuting  the  Christians  and  in  trying  to 
stamp  out  Christianity  on  its  first  entry  into  this 
region,  Bimgani  Ramanna  was  the  only  high-caste 
Hindu  of  influence  who  cared  and  dared  to  stand 
out  as  our  friend.  He  was  the  only  landholder 
who  dared  sell  us  a  piece  of  land  on  which  to 
build  our  school-house  church  and  our  catechist's 
house.  He  sold  us  a  nice  site  for  a  moderate  price, 
and  gave  us  some  of  the  timber  for  building. 

I  now  sit  in  the  school-house  church  then 
erected  on  his  land,  and  he  has  just  been  here  to 
see  me.  He  lives  on  the  other  side  of  the  little 
sharp  hill  of  granite  rock  at  the  foot  of  which  our 
Christian  village  nestles  ;  he  is  a  high-caste  farmer 
and  landowner,  a  venerable  white-haired  old  pa- 
208 


UNRECKONED  FRUITS  209 

triarch  of  seventy- five  or  eighty ;  his  step  is  feeble 
and  his  eyes  are  growing  dim. 

News  reached  his  house  that  I  had  come, — my 
first  visit  to  these  villages  since  returning  from 
America  in  1887, — and  he  came  on  foot  a  quar- 
ter of  a  mile,  leaning  on  his  staff,  to  see  me,  and 
I  have  been  talking  with  him  of  Jesus  and  His 
salvation.     My  heart  yearns  toward  him. 

I  had  been  to  his  village  and  presented  the 
gospel  of  Christ  for  their  acceptance  even  before 
the  people  here  came  over  to  Christianity  in  1872. 
He  had  listened  with  attention  and  interest;  he 
seemed  then  drawn  toward  Christianity,  at  least 
so  far  as  to  wish  to  see  those  who  embraced  it 
fairly  treated.  The  wrath  of  his  neighbors  came 
down  on  him  because  he  sold  us  land  and  made  it 
possible  for  us  to  build  a  church.  He  quietly  bore 
their  anger  and  continued  his  friendship  with  us. 

It  was  only  a  few  months  after  that  that,  one 
day,  as  I  was  dismounting  from  my  pony  at  Tim- 
mareddipalle,  having  just  ridden  out  from  Ma- 
danapalle  to  see  the  people  and  preach  to  them, 
some  men  came  running  from  Ramanna's  village, 
saying  that  his  eldest  son  had  just  had  his  foot 
fearfully  gashed  with  an  adz ;  that  they  could 
not  stanch  the  flowing  of  the  blood ;  that  he  was 
bleeding  to  death ;  that  Ramanna  had  seen  me 
riding  across  the  fields,  and  had  sent  them  to  ask 
me  to  come  quick  and  save  his  son's  life. 


210  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

In  a  few  moments  my  pony  had  taken  me  to 
his  house.  Providentially  I  had  my  pocket  sur- 
gical case  with  me.  The  arteries  were  taken  up, 
the  bleeding  was  stopped,  his  son  lived,  the  foot 
was  saved  and  healed.  Then  Ramanna  turned 
upon  his  maligners,  saying,  "  Now  what  have  you 
to  say  ?  I  sold  the  missionary  some  land,  and  he 
has  saved  my  son's  life."  And  no  further  objec- 
tion could  they  make  to  his  associating  with  us, 
even  though  I  frequently  went  to  his  house  and 
preached  the  gospel  to  him  and  his  family  and 
friends.  Ramanna  himself  seemed  always  to  lis- 
ten to  the  truth  with  gladness,  but  none  of  his 
family  appeared  to  sympathize  with  him,  although 
treating  me  with  politeness  and  attention. 

To  our  su(x;essive  catechists  at  Timmareddipalle 
and  to  our  lower-caste  converts  Ramanna  has  all 
these  fifteen  years  been  a  true  friend,  and  has 
been,  and  continues  to  be,  a  frequent  attendant 
upon  our  Sabbath  services.  Again  and  again 
through  these  years  have  I  had  earnest  personal 
talks  with  him  about  openly  embracing  Christ, 
and  so  has  our  catechist,  John  Souri  (now  the 
Rev.  John  Souri),  for  whom  he  has  a  deep  affection. 

"  I  do  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Saviour  of 
the  world,"  he  says,  with  apparently  real  sin- 
cerity ;  "  I  do  believe  that  He  alone  can  save  us 
from  our  sins,  that  He  alone  can  give  eternal  life, 
and  I  do  want  Him  as  my  Saviour." 


UNRECKONED  FRUITS  211 

"Then,  Ramanna,  why  not  come  out  openly 
and  embrace  Him  as  your  Saviour?  " 

"  Oh,  sir,  look  at  my  family.  If  they  would 
come  with  me  how  gladly  would  I  come;  but 
not  one  of  them  would  come.  My  wife,  my 
three  sons  and  their  wives,  my  three  daughters, 
my  five  grandchildren,  would  all  desert  and  spurn 
me  and  drive  me  from  the  house.  Even  that  I 
could  bear  if  that  were  all.  But  though  they 
cast  me  out  to  prove  their  devotion  to  their  gods, 
the  neighbors  and  all  our  relations  would  with- 
draw from  all  association  with  them.  Not  one 
of  my  younger  daughters  or  granddaughters 
could  marry  a  respectable  Hindu,  and,  not  be- 
coming Christians,  they  would  not  and  could  not 
marry  a  Christian.  My  coming  out  would  wreck 
my  whole  family,  and  they  would  have  no  com- 
fort, as  I  do,  in  believing  in  Christ,  for  they  do 
not  believe  in  Him.  How  can  I  do  it?  No,  sir, 
I  must  wait.  Perhaps  by  and  by  they  will  come 
with  me.  If  they  do,  what  joy  will  it  be  to  us 
all !  If  we  come  we  must  come  together ;  I  can- 
not come  out  alone." 

"But,  Ramanna,  how  can  you  wait?  These 
fifteen  years  you  have  known  about  Jesus ;  now 
you  are  an  old  man;  your  eyes  are  dim,  your 
hair  is  snow  white,  your  steps  totter.  Do  you 
not  want  Christ  as  your.  Saviour  before  you  are 
called  away  ?  " 


212  IN  THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

"  Yes,  sir ;  yes,  I  do  want  Him  as  my  Saviour. 
Every  day  I  pray  to  Him.  You  know  now  I 
sit  by  the  hour  in  the  catechist's  house  and  get 
him  to  read  to  me  the  stories  of  His  Hfe  and 
sufTering.  For  many  years  I  have  not  prayed  to 
any  other  god.  Are  you  sure,  sir,  that  He  will 
not  receive  me  unless  I  bring  ruin  on  my  whole 
family  by  openly  embracing  Him  now?  Wait  a 
little,  sir ;  I  do  believe  my  family  are  softening  a 
little.  Perhaps,  ere  many  years,  we  can  all  come 
out  together,  and  then  what  joy  to  us  and  you ! " 

Do  you  wonder  that  my  heart  yearns  for  the 
old  man?  Oh,  power  of  the  living  God,  come 
down  and  open  the  way  for  this  old  patriarch, 
yes,  and  for  all  his  family,  to  embrace  Thy  Son 
as  their  Redeemer! 

Missionary  statistics  are  valuable;  they  show 
what  progress  we  are  making  in  gathering  in  ac- 
knowledged adherents  into  the  church  of  Christ. 
But  they  do  not  tell  all  the  work  we  do;  they  do 
not  tell  of  all  the  souls  that  are  sincerely  moved 
with  earnest  desire  for  the  salvation  of  Jesus 
Christ ;  for  there  are  scores  and  perhaps  hundreds 
of  men  around  us  who  are  in  somewhat  the  same 
condition  as  dear  old  Bimgani  Ramanna.  In  all 
these  cases  our  work  has  been  fruitful  to  a  certain 
extent,  and  of  these  the  church  should  know  and 
for  these  the  church  should  pray ;  but  still,  as  far 
cis  statistics  go,  they  are  all  "  unreckoned  fruits." 


XXIII 

THE   MARGOSA-TREE  AND  THE  HINDU  TEMPLE 

I  WAS  much  interested  in  watching  a  contest 
between  a  margosa-tree  and  a  Hindu  temple, 
in  which  the  margosa-tree  bids  fair  to  come  ofif 

victor. 

We  are  out  on  a  preaching  tour,  preaching  the 
gospel  in  the  villages  around  the  old  Mohamme- 
dan fortress  at  Gurramkonda,  where  in  former 
times  the  nawab  of  Gurramkonda  ruled  with  an 
iron  hand  for  so  long  a  time.  Joining  with  Tippu 
Sultan  against  the  English,  he  fell  about  the  same 
time  as  Tippu,— a  century  ago,— and  his  palace 
went  to  decay,  or  at  least  a  part  of  it ;  but  the 
better  part  has  been  preserved,  and  serves  as  a 
travelers'  bungalow,  and  in  that  we  are  now  abid- 
ing, as  we  are  evangelizing  the  villages  over 
which  he  once  held  sway. 

The  fort  upon  the  high  hill  of  Gurramkonda, 
or  "  horse  mountain,"  used  to  be  considered  im- 
pregnable ;  but  in  the  days  of  modern  warfare  it 
fell  an  easy  prey  to  English  shell  and  cannon, 
213 


214  IN   THE  TIGER.  JUNGLE 

and  in  former  years  I  used  occasionally  to  coni^ 
out  here  and  spend  a  week  or  a  fortnight  in 
preaching  in  all  the  villages  around.  My  work 
developed  more  in  other  quarters,  and  for  nearly 
twenty  years  there  has  been  no  canvass  of  these 
villages.  Now  we  are  trying  to  give  them  once 
more  the  offer  of  hfe  through  Christ,  and  two  of 
us  missionaries  are  now  in  camp  here  with  our 
native  assistants,  and  are  preaching  through  all 
these  villages. 

.  This  morning  we  went  out  in  the  villages  from 
two  and  a  half  to  five  miles  north.  We  had  with 
us  the  record  of  my  first  tour  in  this  region,  in 
1865.  Against  the  name  of  the  village  in  which 
John  Souri  and  I  preached  this  morning  I  find 
the  entry,  made  in  1865,  "Too  much  afraid  to 
listen."  Then  they  ran  from  us;  this  morning 
they  gathered  close  around  us. 

We  reached  the  village  before  sunrise,  and 
found  the  people  just  astir.  We  sang  one  of  the 
songs  of  Zion  to  a  sweet  Telugu  tune,  and  soon 
had  apparently  the  whole  population  of  the  vil- 
lage, old  and  young,  male  and  female,  gathered 
around  us ;  and  earnestly  did  they  listen  as  we 
explained  to  them  God's  way  of  saving  sinners. 
They  placed  a  native  couch  out  for  us  to  sit  upon, 
and  all  took  their  seats  in  a  semicircle  around  us. 
We  each  spoke  at  length,  and  they  not  only  lis- 
tened through,  but  asked  us  many  questions,  and 


MARGOSA-TREE  AND  HINDU   TEMPLE      215 

kept  us  for  over  an  hour  before  they  would  let 
us  go.  We  had  a  most  interesting  time.  They 
had  not  heard  the  gospel  sound  for  twenty  years, 
and  now  they  wanted  to  hear  all  about  it. 

As  we  were  walking  back  we  were  talking 
about  the  growth,  but  the  very  slow  growth,  of 
Christianity  in  India  and  in  our  mission.  We 
were  speaking  of  its  evidently  having  taken  root 
in  this  region,  and  that  it  would  stay  and  grow 
in  spite  of  the  arid  surroundings,  for  it  came  of 
imperishable  seed,  when  our  attention  was  at- 
tracted to  a  firmly  built  Hindu  temple  by  the  side 
of  the  road  between  two  villages,  out  of  the  roof 
of  which  was  growing  a  beautiful  margosa-tree. 
We  stopped  to  look  at  it. 

The  temple  was  of  granite.  Monolith  pillars 
were  placed  at  regular  distances  through  it,  and 
on  these  were  resting  long  slabs  of  granite  and 
chunam  mortar,  smoothed  and  polished  on  top, 
so  as  to  form  a  perfectly  waterproof  roof  that 
would  last  for  centuries.  From  its  west  end  rose 
its  peculiar  gopuram,  or  tower,  common  to  Hindu 
temples.  But  out  of  the  roof,  at  the  junction  of 
the  tower,  there  was  growing  the  margosa-tree 
to  which  I  have  referred. 

The  margosa-tree  reached  to  the  top  of  the 
gopuram.  It  would  soon  overtop  it.  Unless  re- 
moved, it  would  unquestionably  in  time  throw 
the    temple    to    the   ground.     It   had   evidently 


216  IN   THE   TIGER  JUNGLE 

sprouted  and  grown  since  I  was  here  twenty 
years  ago  sowing  the  first  gospel  seed.  Some 
monkey  or  some  crow  had  carried  the  margosa 
fruit  there  to  eat.  A  seed  had  dropped  into  a 
crevice.  Some  leaves  had  probably  blown  upon 
the  temple,  and,  in  the  next  monsoon  covering 
it,  had  decayed  and  given  nourishment  to  the 
sprouting  seed.  It  had  run  a  rootlet  down  into 
a  small  crack.  By  the  aid  of  the  casually  blown 
leaves  it  had  managed  to  live  on.  Another  mon- 
soon had  helped  it  to  secure  firm  foothold  there 
in  that  unpropitious  place,  and  year  by  year,  un- 
disturbed by  any  one,  it  has  grown  until  it  is  a 
goodly  tree,  much  more  goodly  than  the  temple 
out  of  which  it  is  growing. 

The  temple  seems  to  have  been  deserted.  I 
presume,  like  many  other  Hindu  temples,  the 
funds  which  had  been  left  by  the  one  who  in  the 
fulfilment  of  a  vow  had  built  it  had  now  been 
exhausted.  The  Brahmans  of  this  age  are  not  in 
the  habit  of  keeping  up  worship  in  a  temple 
where  they  are  not  paid  for  it.  The  temple  is 
not,  for  Hindus,  a  place  of  gathering  for  instruc- 
tion.    The  temple  was  deserted. 

Passers-by  might  have  climbed  up  and  with  a 
pinch  of  the  fingers  have  pulled  out  the  tree  years 
ago ;  but  no  one  did.  What  is  every  one's  busi- 
ness is  no  one's  business.  It  has  not  been  mo- 
lested; now  it  is  a  tree  of  size  and  strength.     Its 


MARCOSA-TREE  AND  HINDU  TEMPLE       217 

uprooting  now  would  wreck  the  temple ;  if  it  lives 
its  growing  will  wreck  the  temple.  The  temple 
was  firmly  built,  and  is  strong ;  the  tree  is  endowed 
with  life,  and  is  stronger.  Massive  temple  must 
yield  to  living  tree.  Small  in  its  beginning,  but 
instinct  with  life  and  growth,  it  will  prove  the 
victor.  Years  are  necessary,  but  the  result  is 
sure. 

We  had  found  our  illustration  without' seeking 
for  it.  We  thanked  God  for  the  parable.  It  was 
to  me  an  inspiration,  and  I  cannot  refrain  from 
recounting  it  for  the  encouragement  of  those  who 
are  helping  us  to  plant  the  gospel  seed  in  this 
apparently  unpropitious  soil.  That  temple  repre- 
sents Hinduism  as  it  is  now;  it  stands  firm,  de- 
fiant, the  representative  of  a  once  more  active 
religious  spirit,  but  now  without  real  life.  It 
presents  a  tremendous  resistance,  but  the  resis- 
tance of  the  granite  temple  in  the  main.  Here 
and  there,  now  and  then,  it  takes  on  life  to  oppose 
the  new  faith,  hardly  ever  to  propagate  itself. 
Its  chief  power  of  resistance  is  in  its  massive  inert- 
ness. 

But  the  gospel  seed  is  scattered.  Some  of  it 
finds  its  way  into  unseen  cracks  and  crevices ;  it 
is  not  noticed;  no  one  takes  the  trouble  to  root 
it  out.  The  gospel  seed  is  germinating  in  thou- 
sands of  unsuspected  places.  It  is  already,  almost 
unnoticed,   here   and    there   towering   over   the 


218  IN  THE  TIGER  JUNGLE 

gopurams  of  heathenism.  Day  by  day  are  we 
introducing  the  seed  into  new  crevices.  Some 
will  never  take  root.  It  has  ever  and  everywhere 
been  so.  Some  will  grow.  The  heathen  temples, 
all  these  shrines  that  exalt  themselves  between 
man  and  his  Saviour,  will  crumble,  and  the  tree 
whose  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations 
will  grow  and  blossom  and  fruit  all  through  this 
sin-cursed  land.  I  hear  the  voice  wafted  from 
the  beautiful  leaves  of  the  margosa-tree :  "  I  will 
bring  forth  a  seed  out  of  Jacob,  and  out  of  Judah 
an  inheritor  of  My  mountains.  .  .  .  For  as  the 
days  of  a  tree  are  the  days  of  My  people.  They 
shall  not  labor  in  vain,  .  .  .  for  they  are  the  seed 
of  the  blessed  of  the  Lord."  "His  name  shall 
endure  forever:  ...  all  nations  shall  call  Him 
blessed.  And  blessed  be  His  glorious  name  for- 
ever :  and  let  the  whole  earth  be  filled  with  His 
glory.     Amen,  and  Amen." 


miSSIONS,  AMERICA, 


On  the  Indian  Trail, 

And  Other  Stories  of  Missionary  Work  among  the  Crae 
and  Saulteaux  Indians.      By  Egerton  R.  Young.      Illus- 
trated by  J.  E.  Laughlin.     lamo,  cloth,  $i.oo. 
Mr.  Young  is  well  known  to  readers  of  all  ages  as  the  author 
of  "Bv  Canoe  and  Dog  Train,"  "Three  Boys  in  the  Wild  North 
Land,    and  other  very  popular  books  describing  life  and  adventure 
in  the  great  Northwest.    The  stories  in  this  new  book  tell  of  some 
very  exciting  incidents  in  his  career,  and  describe  phases  of  life 
among  the  American  Indians  which  are  fast  becoming  things  cf 
the  past. 

Forty-two  Years  Among  the  Indians  and 
Eskimos. 

Pictures  from  the  Life  of  the  Rt.  Rev.  John  Horden,  first 
Bishop  of  Moosonee.  By  Beatrice  Batty.  Illustrated. 
i2mo,  cloth,  $1.00. 

Vikings  of  To-Day; 

Or,  Life  and  Medical  Work  among  the  Fishermen  of 
Laorador.  By  Wilfred  T.  Grenfel,  M.D.,  of  the  Deep 
5ea  Mission.  Illustrated  from  Original  Photographs. 
Second  edition.     lamo,  cloth,  $1.25. 

"The  author  has  been  in  charge  of  the  work  since  its  inception, 
and  writes,  accordingly,  with  special  authority  and  wealth  of  detail, 
both  as  to  the  methods  of  work  and  as  to  the  people — the  fearless, 
patient  Vikings — to  whom  he  has  dedicated  his  liie."—T/ie  Ex- 
aminer, 

Amid  Greenland  Snows; 

Or,  The  Early  History  of  Arctic  Missions.  By  Jesse  Page. 
Missionary  Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  Tenth  thous- 
and,    lamo,  cloth,  75c. 

Kin-da-Shon's  Wife. 

An  Alaskan  Story.     By  Mrs.  Eugene  S.  Willard.     Illus- 
trated.    Third  edition.     8vo,  cloth,  $1.50. 
*'  From  beginning  to  end  the  book  holds  the  attention.    Mrs. 

Willard  has  shown  herself  peculiarly  well  qualified  to  write  sucb 

a  book." — Public  Opinion. 

David  Brainerd, 

The  Apostle  to  the  North  American  Indians.  By  Jesse 
Page.  Missionary  Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  Twelfth 
thousand.      i2mo,  cloth,  75c. 

South  America,  the  Neglected  Continent 

By  Lucy  E.  Guinness  and  E.  C.  Millard.  With  a  Map 
in  colors  and  many  other  Illustrations.  Small  4to,  paper, 
50c.;  cloth,  75c. 


MISSIONS,   AFRICA. 


The  Personal  Life  of  David  Livingstone. 

Chiefly  from  his  unpublished  journals  and  correspondence 
in  the  possession  of  his  family.     By  W.  C-ikoen  Blaikie, 
D.D.,  LL.D."     With  Portrait  and  Map.     New,  cheap  edi- 
tion.    508  pages,  8vo,  cloth,  $1.50. 
"There  is  throughout  the  narrative  that  glow  of  interest  which 

Is  realized  while  events  are  comparatively  recent,  with  that  also 

which  is  still  fresh  and  tender." — The  Standard. 

David  Livingstone. 

His  Labors  and  His  Legacy.  By  A.  Montefiore,  F.R.G.S 
Missionary  Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  160  pages, 
i2mo,  cloth,  75c. 

David  Livingstone. 

By  Mrs.  J.  H.  Worcester,  Jr.,  Missionary  Annals  Series. 
i2mo,  paper,  net,  15c.;  flexible  cloth,  net,  30c. 

Reality  vs.  Romance    in   South    Central 
Africa. 

Being  an  Account  of  a  Journey  across  the  African  Conti- 
nent, from  Benguella  on  the  West  Coast  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Zambesi.  By  James  Johnston,  M.D.  With  51  full- 
page  photogravure  reproductions  of  photographs  by  the 
author,  and  a  map.     Royal  8vo,  cloth,  boxed,  $4.00. 

The  Story  of  Uganda 

And  of  the  Victoria  Nyanza  Mission.  By  S,  G.  Stock. 
Illustrated.     i2mo,  cloth,  $1.25. 

"To  be  commended  as  a  good,  brief,  general  survey  of  the 
Protestant  missionary  work  in  Uganda."— 772*  Literary  World. 

Robert  Moffat, 

The  Missionary  Hero  of  Kuruman.  By  David  J.  Dbane. 
Missionary  Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  2^th  thousand. 
lamo,  cloth,  75c. 

Robert  Moffat. 

By  M.  L.  Wilder.  Missionary  Annals  Series.  12010, 
paper,  net^   15c.;  flexible  cloth,  net,  30c. 

The  Congo  for  Christ. 

The  Story  of  the  Congo  Mission.  By  Rev.  John  B.  Myxrs. 
Missionary  Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  Tenth  thousand, 
i2mo.  cloth,  75c. 

On  tne  Congo. 

Edited  from  Notes  and  Conversations  of  Missionaries,  by 
Mrs.  H.  Grattan  Guinness.     i2mo,  paper,  50c 


miSSIONS.  AFRICA, 


Samuel  Crowther,  the  Slave  Boy 

Who  became  Bishop  of  the  Niger.  By  Jesse  Paoi.  Mb- 
sionary  Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  Eighteenth  thous- 
and,    lamo,  cloth,  75c. 

"  We  cannot  conceive  of  anything  better  calculated  to  inspire 
in  the  hearts  of  young  people  an  enthusiasm  for  the  cause." — The 
Christian. 

Thomas  Birch  Freeman. 

Missionary  Pioneer  to  Ashanti,  Dahomey  and  Egba.  By 
John  MiLUM,  F.R.G.S,  Missionary  Biography  Series.  Illus- 
trated.    i2mo,  cloth,  75c. 

"Well  written  and  welt  worth  reading."— 772<r  Faithful  Wit- 
ness. 

Seven  Years  in  Sierra  Leone. 

The  Story  of  the  Missionary  Work  of  Wm.  A.  B.  Johnson. 
By  Rev.  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.D.     i6mo,  cloth,  $1.00. 

Johnson  was  a  missionary  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  in 
Regent's  Town,  Sierra  Leone,  Africa,  from  1816  to  1833, 

Among  the  Matabele. 

By  Rev.  D.  Carnegie,  for  ten  years  resident  at  Hope  Foun- 
tain, twelve  miles  from  Bulawayo.  With  portraits,  maps 
and  other  illustrations.    Second  edition,    lamo,  cloth,  60c. 

Peril  and  Adventure  in  Central  Africa. 

Illustrated  Letter  to  the  Youngsters  at  Home,  By  Bishop 
Hammington.     Illustrated.     i2mo,  cloth,  50c. 

Madagascar  of  To-Day. 

A  Sketch  of  the  Island.  With  Chapters  on  its  History  ani, 
Prospects.  By  Rev.  W.  E.  Cousins,  Missionary  of  the 
iVondon  Missionary  Society  since  1862.  Map  and  Illus- 
trations.   i2mo,  cloth,  $1.00. 

Madagascar. 

Its  Missionaries  and  Martyrs.  By  Rev.  W.  j.  Townsbnd. 
D.  D.  Missionary  Biography  Series.  Illustrated.  Tenth 
thousand.     lamo,  cloth,  75c. 

Madagascar. 

By  Belle  McPherson  Campbell.  Missionary  Annals  SortAS. 
i2mo,  paper,  net,  15c.;  flexible  cloth,  net,  30c. 

Madagascar. 

Country,  People,  Missions.  By  Rev.  James  SibrH; 
F.R.G.S.     Outline  Missionary  Series.     i6mo,  pap«r,  aoe. 


{MISSIOhx  aENBRAL 


The  World's  Missionary  Conference  Re- 
ports. 

Being  the  Report  of  the  Centenary  Conference  on  the  Prot- 
estant Missions  of  the  World,  London,  i8S8.  Edited  1/ 
Rev.  James  Johnston,  F.S.S.,  Secretary  of  the  Conference. 
Two  large  8vo  vols.,  over  1,200  pages,  cloth,  net,  $2.00. 

The  Holy  Spirit  in  Missions. 

By  Rev.  A.  J.  Gordon^  D.D.  Graves'  Lectures,  1892. 
i2mo,  paper,  net,  50c.;  cloth,  gilt  top,  $1.25. 

Medical  Missions. 

Their  Place  and  Power,  By  Rev.  John  Lowe,  Secretary 
of  the  Edinburgh  Medical  Mission  Society.  Fourth  edition, 
i2mo,  cloth,  $1.50. 

A  Primer  of  Medical  Missions. 

By  Rev.  John  Lowe.  Outline  Missionary  Series.  i6mq 
paper,  20c. 

A  Manual  of  Modern  Missions. 

Historical  and  Statistical  Accounts  of  the  Principal  Prot- 
'^stant  Missionary  Societies  in  America.  Great  Britain,  and 
l\\t  Continent  of  Europe.  Illustrated.  By  Rev.  J,  T. 
Gracy,  D.D.     1 2mo,  cloth,  $1.25. 

Open  Doors. 

Hints  about  Opportunities  for  Christian  Work  in  all  parts 
of  the  World.      i6mo,  paper,  15c. 

The  Greatest  Work  in  the  World. 

The  Evangelization  of  all  Peoples  in  the  Present  Century. 
By  Rev.  A.  T.  Pierson,  D.D.     i2mo,  paper.  15c. 

The  Evangelization  of  the  World. 

A  Record  of  Consecration,  and  an  Appeal.  By  B.  Broom- 
hall,  Secretary  of  C.  I.  M.     Illustrated.    .|to,  net,  $1.00. 

Modern  British  Missions. 

With  References  to  American  Missions.  By  Rev.  E.  P. 
Rice,  Rev.  J.  P.  Hobson,  and  others.  Edited  by  Rev. 
R.  LovETT,  M.A.  Present  Day  Primer  Series.  i8mo 
flexible  cloth,  net,  40c. 

"Do  Not  Say;" 

Or,  The  Church's  Excuses  for  Neglecting  the  Heathen. 
By  J.  H.  HoRSBURGH,  M.A.     i2mo,  paper,  net,  loc. 


^^ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


i-D-URi.     JUL 


m 


URL 


MAR  2  4 1983 

NOV  2  9  W 

Form  L9-25m-8,'46  ( 9852 )  444 


THE  LIBRARY 


3  1158  00849  6266 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    001  137165    5 


iis'i'^! 


